Information on the type of hospital was obtained from the AHA Annual Survey of Hospitals. The American Hospital Association's definition of a community hospital includes nonfederal short-term hospitals whose facilities are available to the public. Short-term is defined as hospitals with an average length of stay less than 30 days. Both general and specialty hospitals (e.g., obstetrics and gynecology, rehabilitation, orthopedics, and eye, ear, nose and throat) are included in the definition of community hospitals. The COMMUNITY_NONREHAB_NONLTAC flag indicates community hospitals that are not general or children's rehabilitation hospitals and not long-term acute care (LTAC) hospitals.
During HCUP data processing, the data source's identification of the hospital is reconciled with the identification of the hospital in the AHA Annual Survey of Hospitals. For detailed information about this linking process, see the special report on HCUP Hospital Identifiers.
COMMUNITY_NONREHAB_NONLTAC is missing for some hospitals because an AHA hospital identifier cannot be determined. Hospitals may not be registered with the AHA or the source-provided information cannot be linked to the AHA.
The data element COMMUNITY_NONREHAB_NONLTAC is available in the Hospital file.
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