Source Files

The HCUP Utah inpatient files were constructed from inpatient files received from the Office of Health Care Statistics, Utah Department of Health.

Beginning with 2015 data, the Utah Partner organization has requested that data elements AGE, FEMALE and ZIP are set to missing (blank) in the Central Distributor SID when the record contains an indication of substance abuse or HIV infection.

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

The Utah data include inpatient discharge data from general acute care and some specialty facilities (e.g., children's hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, state psychiatric facilities, etc.) associated with acute care 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 Utah does not indicate whether stays in special units within the hospital (e.g., psychiatric, rehabilitation, long-term care) are included in the file.

Exclusion of Records During HCUP Data Processing

Records with a discharge disposition of "still a patient" were excluded from the HCUP Utah inpatient data.