2000 National Hospital Discharge Survey

Abstract

OBJECTIVES; This report presents national estimates of the use of non-Federal short-stay hospitals in the United States during 2000. Numbers and rates of discharges, diagnoses, and procedures are shown by age and sex. Discharges are also shown by geographic region of hospital. Average lengths of stay are presented for all discharges and for selected diagnostic categories by age and by sex. Trend data for selected variables are also provided.

Methods: The estimates are based on medical abstract data collected through the National Hospital Discharge Survey for 2000. The survey has been conducted annually by the National Center for Health Statistics since 1965. Diagnoses and procedures presented are coded according to the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification, or ICD-9-CM.

Results: Trends in the utilization of non-Federal short-stay hospitals show that the rate of hospitalization of the elderly (those 65 years of age and over) increased over the entire period from 1970 to 2000, despite a decrease in the 1980s. The rates for the other age groups declined overall. In 2000, there were an estimated 31.7 million discharges of inpatients, excluding newborn infants, from non-Federal short-stay hospitals in the United States. The discharge rate was 1,140.1 per 10,000 population and the average length of stay was 4.9 days. There were 40 million procedures performed on hospital inpatients during 2000. Males had more cardiovascular procedures than females (3.4 million versus 2.5 million), while females had more operations on the digestive system than males (3.0 million versus 2.2 million). About one-quarter of all procedures performed on females were obstetrical.