Claudia Steiner and Chaya Merrill, two trainers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), provided training on the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project on Thursday, April 23 at ECRI Institute. Forty-five attendees learned about the six different HCUP databases and received a quick demonstration of how to use “HCUPnet,” AHRQ’s free web-based tool. Following the training session, Evelyn Kuserk, ECRI Library Director, gave a tour of the facility and library.
HCUP’s suite of databases and tools contains hospital discharge data for both the insured and uninsured on the national, state, and local levels. The suite is useful for researching and comparing health statistics and practice patterns, healthcare policy and cost, patient access to healthcare, and healthcare quality.
HCUP uses data specifically from the ICD-9 hospital billing codes. These codes include detailed information on patient treatment and diagnosis as well as basic demographic data, but they have limited outcomes data. Currently forty states voluntarily submit data to AHRQ to use for HCUP, and some send more detailed data than others. Pennsylvania has not participated since 2003, but the AHRQ trainers were hopeful that Pennsylvania will start participating again soon.
HCUP databases on CD include:
- Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS): 1988-2006
- Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID): 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006
- Nationwide Emergency Department Database (NEDS): 2006 (to be available later this year)
- State Inpatient Databases (SID): 1990-2006
- State Ambulatory Surgery Databases (SASD): 1997-2006
- State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD): 1999-2006
For more detailed information on the individual databases, see the HCUP database page: http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/databases.jsp.
AHRQ publishes new HCUP CDs every few years as new collections of data become available. The new CDs do not include data from previous years, so to do time frame comparisons, you would need to re-run your search across previous databases. The three national databases cost $200 each. The cost of the statewide databases varies from $20 to $3000, depending on the state.
HCUPnet (http://hcupnet.ahrq.gov/), is free online and allows users to search limited collections of data that are based on the above databases. Users can search HCUPnet by specific ICD-9 codes or browse by groups of conditions. The HCUP main website also links to free topical reports and statistical briefs on specific conditions (http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports.jsp).
Although HCUP data is considered public information, AHRQ requires all users to sign a usage agreement and restricts how users publish data. These usage restrictions would prevent academic or other libraries from freely lending HCUP databases to their patrons, as libraries could be liable for making sure all users comply with the usage agreement.
Overall, attendees seemed impressed with the type of data available in HCUP. The AHRQ trainers were receptive to our questions and mentioned that many of the site’s interface improvements have been made in response to user feedback, so feel free to contact them with any suggestions.
Thank you to Jen de Richmond for planning this successful event and to Laura Koepfler for coordinating local arrangements. If you were unable to attend the training or would like a refresher, a free tutorial is available linked from the HCUP website <http://hcupnet.ahrq.gov/>(see “HCUPnet tutorial” link on the top right). HCUP also provides an email list to keep users up-to-date. Go to http://www.ahrq.gov/data/hcup/hcuplist.htm to sign up.
Crystal Knapp
Crystal is currently working part-time at the Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies but is seeking a full-time position in a medical library.
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