The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has released information from the 2008 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Nationwide Inpatient Sample, with trend information as far back as 1993. Among the highlights:
- Hospital discharges increased from 34.7 million in 1997 to 39.9 million in 2008, an average annual increase of 1.3 percent.
- The average length of stay in 2008 (4.6 days) was almost 20 percent shorter than in 1993 (5.7 days). It has remained unchanged since 2000.
- Circulatory conditions were the most frequent major cause of hospital stays in 2008.
- Females accounted for more stays than males—18.6 million stays for females compared to 16.5 million stays for males.
- Between 1997 and 2008, Medicaid discharges (up 30 percent) grew at double the rate of all discharges, followed closely by uninsured discharges (up 27 percent).
- Blood transfusion occurred in over ten percent of all hospital stays that included a procedure and was the most frequently performed procedure in 2008.
- The top three conditions with the highest aggregate costs—septicemia, coronary atherosclerosis, and osteoarthritis —accounted for more than 11 percent of all hospital costs in 2008.
- Of the 39.9 million community hospital discharges in 2008, about 5 percent had a principal diagnosis of a mental health or substance abuse disorder.
For more information, see http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/factsandfigures/2008/TOC_2008.jsp
Source: HCUP Facts and Figures: Statistics on Hospital-based Care in the United States, 2008. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Oct. 2010.
Filed under: Emergency department, Health care utilization, Hospital costs, Medicaid, Medicare, Posted by Jeanette Harlow, Surgery, Uninsured | Tagged: Behavioral health |
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