![Knowledge](../images/knowledge-text.png)
Salons FG
Augmenting Hospital Claim Records Through Data Linkage (304840)
*Jennifer Sayers, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NCHSAnita Bercovitz, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NCHS
Kathleen Taylor, NORC at the University of Chicago
Lisa B. Mirel, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NCHS
Keywords: data linkage, hospital records, national death index, NDI, health care, mortality
Hospital claim records can contain valuable information on patients’ characteristics, health status, and treatment. However, they are limited to information collected during a patient’s stay. By linking hospital and vital records, additional follow-up information can be added. The National Hospital Care Survey (NHCS), conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), collects health care statistics from hospitals across the United States. Through its data linkage program, NCHS has been able to expand the analytic utility of the NHCS by augmenting it with mortality data from the National Death Index (NDI). Although mortality can be determined using discharge status and dates from the hospital claim records in the NHCS, mortality cannot be determined for patients that died after discharge. Using the linked data, 30-, 60-, and 90-day mortality can be calculated for discharged patients. This presentation will present and compare patient mortality using only the 2014 NHCS data and patient mortality using the NHCS-NDI linked file. In addition, a description of the linkage process will be described along with analytic considerations when using the file.