Frequently Asked Questions

HCUP is a family of databases, software tools and products. Because there are a lot of components to this project, a user may need help understanding the project or how to apply it to his or her work. To this end, HCUP offers a variety of user assistance:

• The HCUP User Support site—has comprehensive information about the project.
• Instructor-led presentations and training that explain various parts of the project.
• The Calendar of Events lists seminars, panels, posters, Webinars, exhibits and workshops that HCUP periodically offers to help you learn about HCUP and advance your use and understanding.
• Online tutorials—HCUP offers a number of electronic courses to help users understand the project and how it can be used for research.
• HCUP Technical Assistance—Contact HCUP User Support by email at hcup@ahrq.gov or call (toll-free) 1-866-290-HCUP (4287) with questions regarding the application of an HCUP tool or product to your work. Staff reviews messages daily and responds to inquiries within 3 business days.

HCUP databases include:

• The Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) (produced annually starting with 1988 data year) has inpatient data from a nationwide sample that currently contains data on more than 7 million annual hospital stays that can be weighted to make national estimates.
• The Kids' Inpatient Database (KID) (produced every 3 years starting with 1997 data year) is a nationwide sample of about 3 million pediatric inpatient discharges each year that can be weighted to make national estimates for pediatric care.
• The Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) (produced annually starting with 2006 data year) is a nationwide sample of nearly 30 million records currently from about 1,000 EDs.
• The State Inpatient Databases (SID) (starting in 1995) contain the universe of inpatient discharges from individual states.
• The State Ambulatory Surgery Databases (SASD) (starting in 1997) contain data on encounters from hospital-owned ambulatory surgery facilities, and in some States, from non-hospital-owned facilities.
• The State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD) (starting in 1999) contain data from hospital-affiliated emergency departments for visits that do not result in hospitalizations.

Many of the HCUP databases are available for purchase through the HCUP Central Distributor. More information is available at https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/tech_assist/centdist.jsp.

The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) program is a multi-year initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to develop surveys of patients' experiences with the healthcare they receive from health plans, providers, and facilities such as hospitals, in-center hemodialysis facilities, and home health agencies. The CAHPS program also houses a database for voluntarily submitted survey data from health plans and group practices to support; research quality improvement. Many CAHPS surveys are mandated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for public reporting and in pay-for-performance initiatives.

For more information, go to the CAHPS® website at https://www.ahrq.gov/cahps.

CAHPS® surveys are designed to capture patients' reports and ratings of their experiences with health care services. Specifically, the surveys probe domains that meet the following criteria:

• Consumers and patients are the best and/or only source of information. CAHPS® surveys do not attempt to collect information that can be gathered more effectively through other means (e.g., through medical records or from physicians).
• Consumers and patients have identified the survey domains as being important. The CAHPS® program devotes substantial resources to identifying and confirming the issues that are salient to consumers and influence their decisions, and that the survey questions are meaningful and comprehensible to consumers.

Examples of domains covered by CAHPS® surveys include getting timely appointments, care and information; how well providers communicate with patients; providers' use of information to coordinate care; helpful, courteous and respectful office staff, and customer service.

The CAHPS® surveys were developed with scientific rigor. AHRQ makes sure the surveys are up to date and that the surveys are consistent with the best practices and that they produce useful information. CAHPS surveys are designed to capture information about the experience of care, rather than patient satisfaction. Because of the emphasis on patient experience, CAHPS surveys offer information that's concrete and actionable. One of the most concrete benefits of CAHPS surveys is being able to compare one health care organization's performance to similar organizations.

For more about CAHPS, go to: https://www.ahrq.gov/cahps.

The CAHPS® Database is the national repository for data from the CAHPS family of surveys. Since its inception in 1998, this database has served as an important resource for survey sponsors, researchers, and others interested in using comparative CAHPS survey results and detailed benchmark data. The CAHPS Database contains respondent-level survey data, characteristics of entities surveyed (e.g., health plans, medical groups and practice sites), and other information related to survey administration. These data and information are submitted voluntarily by survey users according to standard specifications.

For details, go to: https://www.ahrq.gov/cahps/cahps-database/.

The CAHPS® Ambulatory Care Improvement Guide is a comprehensive resource for health plans, medical groups, and other providers seeking to improve their performance in the domains of patient experience measured by CAHPS surveys of ambulatory care. This guide will help organizations: cultivate an environment that encourages and sustains improvements in patient-centered care; analyze the results of CAHPS surveys and other forms of patient feedback to identify strengths and weaknesses; and develop strategies for improving performance. The Guide helps organizations assess their readiness to improve, assess ways to approach the quality improvement process, determine where to focus efforts, and help to develop strategies for improving patient experience in ambulatory care settings.

For details, go to: https://www.ahrq.gov/cahps/quality-improvement/improvement-guide/improvement-guide.html.

The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is a nationwide study conducted to learn more about the health care services people use, the charges for those services, and how those services are paid for. MEPS is conducted annually by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Major components of MEPS include surveys of:

• A nationally representative sample of households.
• Hospitals, physicians, and other medical providers including pharmacies reported by the household participants.
• Providers of health insurance.

MEPS is the most complete source of data available on health care use and expenses in the United States. For more detailed information on MEPS, go to: https://meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/.

The software packages most suitable for analyzing Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data are SAS, Stata, SPSS, SUDAAN, and R survey. For more information, go to https://meps.ahrq.gov/survey_comp/hc_samplecodes_se.shtml.

The AHRQ Data Center is a place where researchers with approved projects can access MEPS files that are not available for public use. These files may contain data that AHRQ has not fully edited, or may contain levels of detail that are not approved for public release.

For more information about the AHRQ Data Center, go to: https://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/onsite_datacenter.jsp.