Source Files

The HCUP New York inpatient files were constructed from the New York State Department of Health's Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) Master File.

New York sets certain data elements to missing (blank) in the source file when the record contains an indication of an induced abortion or AIDS/HIV.

Beginning in 1994, hospitals submitted discharge records to New York in a new format, using Universal Data Set (UDS) specifications. This format combines the old Uniform Billing Forms (UBFs) and Discharge Data Abstracts (DDAs) data into a single submission record. In these years, New York supplied records for HCUP that contain complete discharge and uniform billing data corresponding to the "matched" records in earlier years.

For 1988-1993, New York supplied their Master File which consisted of Discharge Data Abstracts (DDAs) matched to Uniform Billing Forms (UBFs) for inpatient stays. New York created the Master File by matching DDAs and UBFs based on Permanent Facility Identifier, Medical Record Number, Admitting Number, Admit Date, and Discharge Date.

Types of Facilities Included in the Files Provided to HCUP by the Partner

The New York files contain inpatient discharges from acute care hospitals, diagnostic treatment centers, and residential health care facilities (i.e., skilled nursing facility) in the state, excluding long-term care units of short-term hospitals and Federal hospitals.

A comparison of the number of hospitals included in the SID and the number of hospitals reported in the AHA Annual Survey is available starting in data year 2010.

Hospitals do not always report data for a full calendar year. Some hospitals open or close during the year; other hospitals have technical problems that prevent them from reporting data for all months in a year.

Inclusion of Stays in Special Units

The documentation supplied by New York indicates that the data include stays in detoxification (alcohol and drug abuse), alcohol rehabilitation, mental retardation, mental rehabilitation, rehabilitation, alternate level of care, and psychiatric (acute and long term) units within community hospitals. Records for these different types of care cannot be identified from the data elements available in the HCUP New York inpatient data.

Exclusion of Records During HCUP Data Processing

Records with a discharge disposition of "still a patient" and "admitted as an inpatient to this hospital" were excluded from the HCUP New York SID.