Source Files

The Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) provides emergency department (ED) records to HCUP in one file. The file contains any visit by a patient to an emergency department that results in neither an outpatient observation stay nor an inpatient admission of the patient. An ED visit occurs even if the only service provided is triage or screening.

Selection of Records for Inclusion in the SEDD

All records identified as CHIA as ED (i.e., included in the separate ED data file provided to HCUP) are included in the SEDD (STATE_ED=1).

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.

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

Massachusetts provides HCUP with ED data from all licensed hospital-owned EDs in the State. This includes stand-alone (satellite) EDs operating under an acute hospital's main campus license.

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. 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.

Additional SEDD Notes

Patients coming into the ED can also have OS care prior to being discharged. HCUP expects these records to be included in the SEDD, however, ED-OS combination records are not provided to HCUP on Massachusetts' ED data file. ED-OS records account for roughly 3-6 percent of SEDD records in 2012.