Finding Health Data and Statistics: Hospitals

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
HCUPnet: Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project data provides data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample and from the State Inpatient Databases. Users can generate tables and graphs on national and regional statistics and trends for community hospitals in the U.S.

American Hospital Association

Hospital Statistics
This annual publication is based on the results of AHA's annual survey and is touted as "a comprehensive resource for analysis and comparison of health care industry trends in U.S. community hospitals." Ask for the latest edition at the Mann Library help desk.

Statistics and Studies
The AHA website provides FastFacts, a Chartbook with trends affecting hospitals, and several other reports.

American Hospital Directory
The Directory provides limited information freely on key characteristics of individual hospitals and state and national totals.

Medicare.gov
The Hospital Compare section provides comparable data on quality of care at hospitals including measures for treatment of heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia.

National Center for Health Statistics

Hospital Utilization
FastStats on hospital utilization provides direct links to relevant tables from NCHS surveys and publications.

National Health Care Surveys
These reoccurring national surveys give provider-based data over a broad range of care settings and can be used to investigate quality, patient safety, health care disparities, diffusion of technologies, patterns of care for specific conditions, and other special topics.

National Hospital Discharge Survey
An annual survey that provides data on patient characteristics, diagnoses, and various forms of treatment.

National Survey of Ambulatory Surgery
Provides characteristics of ambulatory surgery visits to both hospitals and freestanding ambulatory surgery centers such as patient demographics, source of payment, diagnoses, and procedures. Recent data collection efforts are now under the auspices of the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.