Understanding and enhancing the value of hospital discharge data.
This work summarizes how hospital discharge data are used, identifies strengths and shortcomings, and presents suggestions for enhancing usefulness of the data. Results demonstrate that discharge data are used in a wide range of applications by diverse users. Uses include public health and population-based applications, as well as quality assessment, informed purchasing, strategic planning, and policy making. Strategies to enhance the utility of discharge data include: improving the quality of existing data elements and adding new data elements that will support more advanced analyses, improving linkages with data from nonhospital settings and databases outside health care, and developing a technical assistance network to support statewide data organizations in their efforts to collect and analyze discharge data. As our nation moves toward universal electronic medical records, it will be important to keep in mind the many uses of discharge data in order to maintain the data capacity to fill these needs.
Schoenman
Julie A
JA
NORC at the University of Chicago, Bethesda, MD 208143, USA. schoenman-julie@norc.uchicago.edu
Sutton
Janet P
JP
Elixhauser
Anne
A
Love
Denise
D
D003625:Data Collection; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003657:Decision Making; D006285:Health Planning; D006302:Health Services Research; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011050:Policy Making; D017149:Private Sector; D040442:Public Health Informatics; D017150:Public Sector; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D018511:Systems Integration; D014481:United States