HCUP_ED indicates records that have evidence of emergency department (ED) services reported on the HCUP record. A value of 1 or more indicates that there is evidence of ED services, per HCUP criteria. A value of 0 marks records that do not include evidence of ED services.

The criteria used to identify ED services has changed over time. Evidence of ED services includes:

• Emergency department revenue code of 450-459 on record.
• Positive emergency department charge, when revenue center codes are not available.
• Emergency department CPT codes reported on record
  • 99281-99285
  • 99288 (added in data year 2018)
  • G0380-G0384 (added in data year 2018)
• Condition Code of P7 (NUBC preferred coding for public reporting as of July 1, 2010)
• Point of origin of ED (NUBC preferred coding from October 1, 2007 to June 30, 2010)
• Admission source of ED (NUBC preferred coding prior to October 1, 2007).

It is possible that records with HCUP_ED=0 did in fact have ED services, but that relevant coding information was not captured on the HCUP record.

The availability of the data element HCUP_ED varies by HCUP database:

• State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD) beginning in 2003
• State Inpatient Databases (SID) beginning in 2005
• Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) beginning in 2007
• State Ambulatory Surgery Databases beginning in 2003.

Specific to the HCUP SEDD only: HCUP Partner organizations may have different criteria for identifying ED services. Records that are identified by the HCUP Partner as ED visits that are not admitted to the same hospital are included in the SEDD files, regardless of whether the record meets the HCUP ED criteria specified above. In these records, the HCUP_ED variable will be set to 0 in the SEDD. Please refer to the HCUP_ED State Specific Notes for more details.