OBJECTIVES

This report presents 2001 national estimates and selected trend data on the use of non-Federal short-stay hospitals in the United States. Estimates are provided by selected patient and hospital characteristics, diagnoses, and surgical and nonsurgical procedures performed. Admission source and type, collected for the first time in the 2001 National Hospital Discharge Survey, are shown.

METHODS

The estimates are based on data collected through the National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS). The survey has been conducted annually since 1965. In 2001, data were collected for approximately 330,000 discharges. Of the 477 eligible non-Federal short-stay hospitals in the sample, 448 (94 percent) responded to the survey. Estimates of diagnoses and procedures are presented according to International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) code numbers. Rates are computed with 2001 population estimates based on the 2000 census. The appendix includes a comparison of rates computed with 1990 and 2000 census-based population estimates.

RESULTS

An estimated 32.7 million inpatients were discharged from non-Federal short-stay hospitals in 2001. They used 159.4 million days of care and had an average length of stay of 4.9 days. Common first-listed discharge diagnoses included delivery, psychoses, pneumonia, malignant neoplasm, and coronary atherosclerosis. Males had higher rates for procedures such as cardiac catheterization and coronary artery bypass graft, and females had higher rates for procedures such as cholecystectomy and total knee replacement. The rates of all cesarean deliveries, primary and repeat, rose from 1995 to 2001; the rate of vaginal birth after cesarean delivery dropped 37 percent during this period.