Estimating Total Emergency Department Visits: A Comparison of Two Data Sources

• Activity Number: 292
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 3, 2010 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Health Policy Statistics Section
• Author(s): Ryan Mutter+ and Steven Machlin* and Pamela Owens
• Companies: AHRQ and AHRQ and AHRQ
• Keywords: HCUP ; AHA Annual Survey ; hospital utilization

Abstract

Different methodologies exist for the collection of emergency department (ED) data, and these differences can produce varying estimates of ED utilization. For example, survey data are affected by factors like the sampling frame used, response rate, and question format, while administrative data obtained from patient encounter bills are subject to variations in billing practices. In this analysis we compare estimates of ED utilization in 2007 from the American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey of Hospitals and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), which is administrative data based on patient encounter bills. For the 27 States included in the analysis, we find fairly broad concordance between estimates at the total and State levels and identify several hospital characteristics associated with differences at the institutional level.