The HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses are discharge-level files designed to facilitate analyses that need to track patients across time and hospital settings in the SID, SASD, and SEDD while adhering to strict privacy guidelines. They are part of a family of databases and software tools developed as part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) a Federal-State-Industry partnership sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. HCUP databases, tools, and software inform decision making at the national, State, and community levels.

Contents:

• Overview
• How Are the HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses Used?
• What Files Are Available?
• Hardware and Software Requirements
• User Guides
• How Can Users Obtain the HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses?

The HCUP State databases are often characterized as being “discharge-level” files, meaning that each record in a database represents one discharge abstract from a hospital setting, which can be an inpatient, emergency department or ambulatory surgery visit. Thus, if the same individual visited the hospital three times in a given year, the HCUP databases would include three separate records in the respective HCUP database. Many times researchers may be interested in knowing how many visits a distinct patient had rather than simply the number of overall hospital visits. In order to track an individual patient over time, it is necessary to have a unique identifier for an individual that remains consistent across different facilities and hospital settings in a state.

The HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses can be used to track sequential visits for a patient within in a state and across facilities and hospitals settings (inpatient, emergency department, ambulatory surgery) while adhering to strict privacy guidelines. These HCUP supplemental files contain the following:

• Synthetic person-level identifiers that have been verified against the patient’s date of birth and gender and examined for completeness
• A timing variable that can be used to determine the days between hospital events for an individual. Actual dates (admission, discharge or birth) are not part of the supplemental files and are not needed.

HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses are designed to be used exclusively with the HCUP SID, SASD, and SEDD. These files are unique within state and data year. Users will need to merge the data elements on the HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses to the corresponding SID, SASD, or SEDD for any analysis.

The HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses can be used to track sequential visits for a patient within a state and across facilities and hospitals settings (inpatient, emergency department, and ambulatory surgery) while adhering to strict privacy guidelines.

After being combined with the corresponding SID, SASD, or SEDD, the information in the HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses allows HCUP researchers to uniformly identify sequential visits for an individual, and then use the available clinical information to determine if the visits are unrelated, expected follow-up, complications from a previous treatment, or an unexpected revisit or rehospitalization. Total charge information from each visit can be combined to determine a total charge or cost for an episode of hospital care. Many types of studies are now possible. A few possible analyses include:

• Repeat ED use
• Readmissions to the hospital
• Admissions to the hospital after ambulatory surgery
• Patterns of ED and hospital utilization for chronic conditions.

The HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses are available for the SID, SASD, and SEDD starting for 2003. Appendix A of the User Guide provides a detailed list of which states, years, and types of data are available. Supplemental Revisit Files are not available for the NIS, KID, or NEDS.

The HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses can be run on desktop computers with a CD-ROM reader, and are available in ASCII format. The files on the CD require a statistical software package such as SAS or SPSS to use for analytic purposes.

The User Guide for the HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses contains:

• A more detailed description of the files and data elements
• Instructions for linking the files to the SID, SASD, or SEDD
• Considerations for any revisit analysis
• Usage examples.

Downloading Information

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• User Guide: HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses – Central Distributor SID, SASD, and SEDD (PDF file, 466 KB)

HCUP Supplemental Files for Revisit Analyses are available from the HCUP Central Distributor. These files are free of charge, assuming the user has purchased the corresponding SID, SASD, or SEDD and completed the required Data Use Agreements and DUA Online Training. Contact the HCUP Central Distributor to obtain your own copy of these files.