Source Files

The HCUP New Jersey emergency department files were constructed from confidential data received from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.

Beginning in 2008, New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services provides one source file to HCUP that contains a mixture of inpatient, ambulatory surgery (AS) records, emergency department (ED) records, and other outpatient records. Starting in 2017, the AS, ED, and other outpatient records are based on admission date, while inpatient records continue to be based on discharge date. Prior to 2017, all records in the source file were based on discharge date.

The file distinguishes record types by a hierarchical Patient Type Flag with values listed below:
0 - Inpatient: Bill Type = 011X or 012X
1 - Same Day Surgery (SDS): Bill Type = 013X, and LOS = 0, and Discharge Status Code = 01 or 06, and Revenue Code = 036X
2 - ER Outpatient: Bill Type = 013X and Revenue Code = 45X
3 - Other Outpatient: Bill Type = 013X and not SDS or ER

Prior to 2008, the files consisted of emergency department visits associated with all general acute care hospitals in New Jersey.

Emergency department (ED) events were defined as meeting all four of the following requirements:

1. Admitted and discharged from the ED on the same day -or- admitted and discharged the next day (This second scenario covers patients who are in the emergency department past midnight, but are not admitted as an inpatient.)
2. Bill type beginning with 13x for outpatient services
3. Emergency department charges for revenue codes 45x
4. No operating room or ambulatory surgery services.

Selection of Records for Inclusion in the SEDD

All records identified by New Jersey as ED are included in the SEDD (HCUP data element STATE_ED=1 based on patient type value 2).

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

New Jersey provides HCUP with emergency department (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

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.