Summary : National Hospital Discharge Survey

● 1984 accounted for 159 discharges and 1,044 days of care per ,000civilian population. These and other statistics presented in this report are based on data collected by means of the National Hospital Discharge Survey, a continuous survey that has been conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics since 1965. In 1984, data were abstracted from the face sheets of medical records of approximately 192,000 patients discharged from 407 short-stay non-Federal hospitals. A brief description of the sample design, data collection procedures, and estimation process, and definition of terms used in this report can be found in the section entitled “Tecluicai notes.” A detailed discussion of these items, as well as the survey form used to collect the data, have been published.1”2 Coding of medical data for patients hospitalized is done according to the International C[asszYcation of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical A40dzYcation3 (ICD–9–CM). Up to seven diagnoses and four procedures are coded for each discharge. Although diagnoses included in the ICD-9-CM section entitled “Supplementary classification of external causes of injury and poisoning” (codes E800–E999) are used by the National Hospital Discharge Survey, these diagnoses are excluded ftom this report. The conditions diagnosed and procedures performed are presented here by chapter of ICD–9–CM. Within these chapters, a few diagnoses and procedures or groups thereof also are shown. These specific categories were selected primarily ecause of large numbers of occurrences or because they are of ecial interest. Residual categories of the diagnostic and pro@ cedure classes, however, are not included in the tables. More detailed analyses of these data will be presented in later reports in Series 13 of Vital and Health Statistics.