The Federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) today announced that it has enhanced its free, online hospital statistics tool, HCUPnet, by adding 1998 and 1999 data for the Nation, regions of the country, and selected States, and by including for the first time the Kids’ Inpatient Database—the only hospital administrative data set specifically designed for analyzing the use of hospital services by newborns, children and adolescents. Click here to see the HCUPnet site.

HCUPnet enables users to identify, track, analyze and compare statistics on the inpatient care of Americans Since its launch two years ago, the tool has provided answers to thousands of questions about hospital care, including, for example, the leading reasons for admission; the most expensive surgical procedures; the proportion of stays for diabetes that are covered by Medicaid; the proportion of children’s stays that are not covered by insurance, and the trend in the number of coronary artery bypass grafts over the past several years.

AHRQ also announced three further upgrades to HCUPnet. These are:

Instant Tables—commonly requested statistics users can obtain instantly without having to go through HCUPnet’s query system. The "National Bill"—quick access to aggregate charges for diagnoses and procedures, telling users the total national bill for specific diagnoses and procedures.

The ability to specify ranges of ICD-9-CM codes instead of having to request each ICD-9-CM code individually. In addition, users of HCUPnet can provide feedback about the tool during March 2002 by clicking on "Evaluate the HCUPnet Web Site Now," and following the instructions.

The National estimates used in HCUPnet are based on data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS). The 1998 and 1999 NIS data are available on CD-ROM with accompanying documentation for $160 each from the National Technical Information Service (1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000). The 1998 NIS product number is PB2001-500092 and the 1999 NIS product number is PB2002-500020.