Table 1.
Characteristics of All Included Hospitals and Patients, According to Year, as Compared with the Distribution of U.S. Hospitals as Provided by the AHA.*
| Characteristic | Hospitals Included in Study | All Hospitals, 2017 (N=4847)† | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Years (N = 890) | 2012 (N = 532) | 2013 (N = 587) | 2014 (N = 614) | 2015 (N = 653) | 2016 (N = 707) | 2017 (N = 722) | ||
| Hospitals | ||||||||
| Electronic database— no. (%) | ||||||||
| BD Insights Research | 394 (44.3) | 188 (35.3) | 209 (35.6) | 236 (38.4) | 283 (43.3) | 325 (46.0) | 355 (49.2) | NA |
| Cerner Health Facts | 240 (27.0) | 180 (33.8) | 187 (31.9) | 200 (32.6) | 212 (32.5) | 217 (30.7) | 178 (24.7) | NA |
| Premier Healthcare | 256 (28.8) | 164 (30.8) | 191 (32.5) | 178 (29.0) | 158 (24.2) | 165 (23.3) | 189 (26.2) | NA |
| Location — no. (%) | ||||||||
| Rural | 218 (24.5) | 112 (21.1) | 134 (22.8) | 143 (23.3) | 155 (23.7) | 182 (25.7) | 194 (26.9) | 1882 (38.8) |
| Urban | 672 (75.5) | 420 (78.9) | 453 (77.2) | 471 (76.7) | 498 (76.3) | 525 (74.3) | 528 (73.1) | 2965 (61.2) |
| Teaching status — no. (%)‡ | ||||||||
| Nonteaching | 589 (66.2) | 334 (62.8) | 377 (64.2) | 396 (64.5) | 421 (64.5) | 458 (64.8) | 489 (67.7) | 3079 (63.5) |
| Teaching | 301 (33.8) | 198 (37.2) | 210 (35.8) | 218 (35.5) | 232 (35.5) | 249 (35.2) | 233 (32.3) | 1768 (36.5) |
| No. of beds — no. (%) | ||||||||
| <300 | 609 (68.4) | 349 (65.6) | 395 (67.3) | 412 (67.1) | 440 (67.4) | 478 (67.6) | 498 (69.0) | 4025 (83.0) |
| ≥300 | 281 (31.6) | 183 (34.4) | 192 (32.7) | 202 (32.9) | 213 (32.6) | 229 (32.4) | 224 (31.0) | 822 (17.0) |
| U.S. Census division — no. (%) | ||||||||
| New England | 28 (3.1) | 18 (3.4) | 18 (3.1) | 18 (2.9) | 18 (2.8) | 21 (3.0) | 23 (3.2) | 181 (3.7) |
| Middle Atlantic | 113 (12.7) | 75 (14.1) | 76 (12.9) | 74 (12.1) | 74 (11.3) | 81 (11.5) | 77 (10.7) | 412 (8.5) |
| South Atlantic | 156 (17.5) | 88 (16.5) | 98 (16.7) | 103 (16.8) | 105 (16.1) | 114 (16.1) | 133 (18.4) | 714 (14.7) |
| East North Central | 176 (19.8) | 78 (14.7) | 106 (18.1) | 116 (18.9) | 135 (20.7) | 152 (21.5) | 154 (21.3) | 735 (15.2) |
| East South Central | 80 (9.0) | 67 (12.6) | 66 (11.2) | 67 (10.9) | 69 (10.6) | 71 (10.0) | 69 (9.6) | 392 (8.1) |
| West North Central | 48 (5.4) | 23 (4.3) | 28 (4.8) | 26 (4.2) | 27 (4.1) | 32 (4.5) | 37 (5.1) | 700 (14.4) |
| West South Central | 129 (14.5) | 80 (15.0) | 90 (15.3) | 94 (15.3) | 99 (15.2) | 106 (15.0) | 101 (14.0) | 738 (15.2) |
| Mountain | 52 (5.8) | 33 (6.2) | 36 (6.1) | 40 (6.5) | 42 (6.4) | 43 (6.1) | 44 (6.1) | 418 (8.6) |
| Pacific | 108 (12.1) | 70 (13.2) | 69 (11.8) | 76 (12.4) | 84 (12.9) | 87 (12.3) | 84 (11.6) | 557 (11.5) |
| Patients | ||||||||
| Age — no. (% of all discharges) | ||||||||
| <1 yr | 3,994,181 (9.6) | 598,709 (9.7) | 648,094 (9.9) | 679,866 (9.8) | 684,078 (9.6) | 699,463 (9.3) | 683,971 (9.3) | NA |
| 1–17 yr | 1,439,633 (3.5) | 248,885 (4.0) | 253,871 (3.9) | 268,776 (3.9) | 235,762 (3.3) | 225,160 (3.0) | 207,179 (2.8) | NA |
| 18–54 yr | 14,790,525 (35.5) | 2,233,783 (36.2) | 2,329,837 (35.6) | 2,493,632 (36.1) | 2,534,993 (35.7) | 2,658,272 (35.3) | 2,540,008 (34.4) | NA |
| 55–64 yr | 6,264,510 (15.0) | 890,807 (14.4) | 952,496 (14.6) | 1,023,557 (14.8) | 1,078,884 (15.2) | 1,170,155 (15.5) | 1,148,611 (15.5) | NA |
| 65–74 yr | 6,439,533 (15.5) | 896,057 (14.5) | 978,642 (15.0) | 1,034,080 (15.0) | 1,100,578 (15.5) | 1,208,782 (16.1) | 1,221,394 (16.5) | NA |
| >75 yr | 8,554,506 (20.5) | 1,285,696 (20.8) | 1,349,268 (20.6) | 1,375,925 (19.9) | 1,444,712 (20.3) | 1,541,100 (20.5) | 1,557,805 (21.1) | NA |
| Unknown | 154,402 (0.4) | 22,450 (0.4) | 25,836 (0.4) | 27,968 (0.4) | 24,296 (0.3) | 23,798 (0.3) | 30,054 (0.4) | NA |
| Annual no. of hospitalizations (96)§ | 41,637,309 (20.2) | 6,176,400 (17.6) | 6,538,050 (19.0) | 6,903,804 (20.4) | 7,103,303 (20.8) | 7,526,730 (21.9) | 7,389,022 (21.4) | 34,554,279 (100) |
| Annual no. of patient-days (%)§ | 183,510,066 (16.5) | 28,262,293 (15.1) | 29,263,095 (15.9) | 30,461,326 (16.7) | 31,237,196 (16.9) | 32,769,964 (17.7) | 31,516,192 (17.0) | 185,636,360 (100) |
Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding. AHA denotes American Hospital Association, and NA not available.
Data on all U.S. hospitals (short-term, acute care) are from the AHA.14
A total of 20 hospitals in the Cerner Health Facts Database were missing values for teaching status. In these cases, we imputed teaching status by comparing the number of beds with distributions of hospital sizes as reported among the other two hospital data systems, data from the AHA, and data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Healthcare Cost Report Information System.17
Percentages were calculated on the basis of all hospitalizations or patient-days reported by the AHA each year.14