Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)

What is HCUP?

The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) includes the largest collection of longitudinal hospital care data in the United States.

Overview of HCUP
Online HCUP Overview Course is an interactive course that provides information about HCUP data, software tools, and products
Frequently Asked Questions

HCUP Products

Learn about HCUP products including State and nationwide databases, software and online tools, and reports.

HCUP Databases contain information on inpatient stays, emergency department visits, and ambulatory care
HCUPnet is an online query system that provides immediate access to health statistics
HCUP Fast Stats is an online query tool that uses visual displays to compare national or State statistics on a range of healthcare topics.
HCUP Research Tools provide complimentary tools and software to use with HCUP and similar databases
HCUP Reports feature findings, publications, and technical reports on HCUP issues

HCUP Services

Utilize HCUP services to purchase HCUP data, get answers to your HCUP-related questions, and learn how to use the HCUP databases.

Purchase HCUP data through the HCUP Central Distributor
HCUP Technical Assistance answers questions and provides support to HCUP users
HCUP Online Tutorial Series provides free tutorials on HCUP data and tools, including training on technical methods for conducting research with HCUP data
HCUP Data Use Agreement Training Tool is a required tutorial for all purchasers and users of HCUP data that defines how the data can be used

Join the HCUP Mailing List

Join the HCUP Mailing List to receive information on new HCUP data, tools, and products.

What's New

The HCUP Award for Outstanding Research is a biennial award sponsored by AHRQ and AcademyHealth. The award recognizes outstanding research published in peer-reviewed journals that used HCUP databases to explore and address healthcare topics and issues. The call for nominations for articles published from July 1 2022 to June 30, 2024 will be open from November 11, 2024 to December 20, 2024. See the awards page for more information and application instructions.

Pooled State-level estimates on adult inpatient stays involving healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are presented from the hospital perspective from 2019 to 2021. The rate of inpatient stays is presented separately for five examined HAIs by select hospital characteristics. The Stat Brief reports that in 2019 and 2021, large, public non-Federal, teaching, and metropolitan hospitals had higher rates of HAIs compared with their counterparts. See HCUP Stat Brief #314 for additional findings.

Pooled State-level estimates on adult inpatient stays involving healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are presented from 2016 to 2021. The rate of inpatient stays, median length of stay, median total hospital cost, and in-hospital mortality rate are examined separately for HAI and non-HAI stays by the most common major diagnostic category (MDC) in 2019 and 2021. The Stat Brief reports that in 2019 and 2021, inpatient stays with any of the examined HAIs had a longer median length of stay, a higher in-hospital mortality rate, and a higher median hospital cost than stays without any HAIs. See HCUP Stat Brief #313 for additional findings.

Hospital utilization trends in delivery stays with selected co-existing maternal health conditions (diabetes, hypertension, mental health disorders, substance use disorders, and severe maternal morbidity) are presented for 2010-2019. Rates of these co-existing conditions are presented overall and by expected payer and patient characteristics. Hypertension was the most common selected co-existing condition among delivery stays from 2010 to 2019. Each of the selected maternal health conditions was most common in delivery stays for Black non-Hispanic women, and for women aged 35–55 years. See the HCUP Topical Reports page for additional findings.

Hospital utilization trends in delivery stays with severe maternal morbidity (SMM) are presented for 2016-2021; stratified by COVID-19 status in 2020 and 2021. SMM rate changes by patient characteristics are compared between 2016 and 2021 overall and across six SMM complication groups (hemorrhage, respiratory, cardiac, renal, sepsis, and other) separately. The rate of SMM increased 40 percent from 2016 to 2021 but among delivery stays without COVID-19 the increase was 21 percent. Delivery stays with respiratory complications (137 percent) followed by renal complications (119 percent) and sepsis (54 percent) had the largest six-year rate increase compared with all other complications. See HCUP Stat Brief #312 for additional findings.

Email HCUP and tell us about your research: hcup@ahrq.gov