Data on U.S. hospitals: a comparison of the two principal sources

Rapid changes in the nation's health-care requirements and systems of health-care delivery are making detailed and reliable information about the nation's hospitals increasingly important to researchers. This article compares the two principal sources of regular data about the utilization, finances, and staffing of U.S. hospitals--the American Hospital Association's Annual Survey of Hospitals and the National Hospital Panel Survey. It describes the kinds of data collected by the surveys and the methods by which they are processed and verified; and it shows how the surveys complement one another in providing a picture of the nation's hospital industry. The Annual, a yearly survey of all U.S. hospitals, obtains a data set suitable for detailed cross-sectional analyses. The Panel, a monthly survey of a sample of U.S. community hospitals, obtains a data set from which estimated projections suitable for broad longitudinal analysis are derived.