The Nationwide Readmissions Database (NRD) is a unique and powerful database designed to support various types of analyses of national readmissions for all patients regardless of the expected payer for the hospital stay. The NRD includes discharges for patients with and without repeat hospital visits in a year and those who have died in the hospital. Repeat stays may or may not be related. The criteria to determine the relationship between hospital admissions is left to the analyst using the NRD. This database addresses a large gap in healthcare data - the lack of nationally representative information on hospital readmissions for all ages.

The links below provide detailed documentation for the NRD, from a high-level Overview to all the detailed specifications, restrictions, and resources necessary for researchers working and publishing with the NRD.