Source Files

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) reports emergency department (ED) records in a separate file from ambulatory surgery (AS) records. NCDHHS uses Bill Type to distinguish between patients treated in an ED and patients with an ambulatory surgery or other outpatient service.

Records for patients treated in the ED, and then treated and released from observation care are also included in the ED data.

Starting in quarter 4, 2011, NC provides additional types of outpatient records, such as, evaluation and management, medicine, pathology and laboratory, radiology.

Selection of Records for Inclusion in the SEDD

All records identified by NCDHHS as ED (i.e., included in the separate ED data file provided to HCUP) are included in the SEDD (HCUP data element STATE_ED=1 based on Bill Type).

Additionally, any other records with evidence of ED services that are flagged by the variable HCUP_ED (i.e., HCUP_ED>0) during HCUP processing are included in the SEDD. If a record in the SASD also has evidence of ED services based on the HCUP criteria (HCUP data element HCUP_ED not equal to 0), then the SASD record is also included in the SEDD. These records will have the same value for the HCUP data element KEY.

Types of Facilities Included in the Files Provided to HCUP by the Partner

NCDHHS collects ED data from all licensed hospital-owned EDs in the State.

A comparison of the number of hospitals included in the SEDD and the number of hospitals reported in the AHA Annual Survey is available starting in data year 2010.

Hospital-owned EDs do not always report data for a full calendar year. Some open or close during the year; others have technical problems that prevent them from reporting data for all months in a year.

Exclusion of Records During HCUP Data Processing

HCUP removes records from the source supplied ED data file with Bill Type values of 111 and 117, indicating inpatient service. These records reflect patients initially seen in the ED and then subsequently admitted to the same hospital. These records are included in the SID.

Beginning with 2016 data, records with a discharge disposition of "still a patient" are retained in the HCUP SEDD. Prior to 2016 data, these records were excluded. Beginning in 2010, records with a designation of "admitted as an inpatient" are retained in the SEDD, even though this rarely occurs. Prior to 2010, records with a designation of "admitted as an inpatient" were excluded from the files.