Source Files

The HCUP West Virginia inpatient files were constructed from inpatient discharge files received from the West Virginia Health Care Authority.

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

The West Virginia Health Care Authority collects data from acute care licensed hospitals in West Virginia, including critical access hospitals. Freestanding psychiatric and rehabilitation hospitals are not included.

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

Hospitals do not always report data for a full calendar year. Some hospitals open or close during the year; other hospitals have technical problems that prevent them from reporting data for all months in a year.

Inclusion of Stays in Special Units

Information on stays in rehabilitation units of acute hospitals was excluded from the file provided by the data source.

Exclusion of Records During HCUP Data Processing

Records with a discharge disposition of "still a patient" and "admitted as an inpatient to this hospital" were excluded from the HCUP West Virginia inpatient data.