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About the
Project
Welcome to the website for the USC Center for Health Financing, Policy
and Management's California Hospital Data Project.
Supported by a grant from the California HealthCare Foundation, the project
is designed to assemble in a single place, a variety of analytically oriented
hospital data files for easy access and use in research and policy analysis.
The data files contained in this website will be refined and updated over
a three-year period.
The primary goal of the California Hospital Data Project is to enable
the research and policy user community to cost-effectively acquire Office
of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) and other public
data that has been cleaned, processed and merged for analytic purposes.
Data sets and specific data variables to be included in the California
Hospital Data Project were developed through a collaborative process that
involved a broad cross-section of the healthcare research and policy community.
The contributions and perspectives of these individuals were invaluable
in creating a user-driven website. Specific features of the California
Hospital Data Project website and core data sets include:
- An integrated and rationalized listing of key state and federal hospital
identification numbers over time, allowing researchers to readily track
ownership changes, as well as the evolution of California hospital systems.
- Annualized and calendarized data sets of key variables to support
time series analyses
- Downloadable data in either SAS or Excel format.
- Resources such as DRG listings, maps, census data, key variable tables,
user notes, and web links to facilitate research efforts.
Although user ease and flexibility were important website design considerations,
users may nevertheless require some additional assistance in using the
website or data. The project team is available to answer questions and
to offer technical assistance. Project team programmers also are available
to assist with the incorporation of data for specific project needs that
are not currently addressed in the website's core data holdings.
While great care was taken in editing and preparing the data, the data
sets may contain unintended reporting or processing errors. In order to
maximize the value of this website to the research and policy community,
we encourage you to report any errors to us so that we can update the
files.
Finally, this is your website. We welcome your input concerning the site,
the usefulness of the data sets, suggestions for updates and additions,
and any other feedback that will improve the site's value to you and your
work. Please click on "Guest Book"
or contact Joyce Mann, Ph.D., project director, by email at
joyceman@usc.edu or by telephone at 213.740.0547.
Inventory of
Data Available
The California Hospital Data Project website is designed
to provide a series of data sets to support research and policy analyses
of California hospitals. The site focuses on all short-term acute hospitals
in the state. In addition to hospital data, the site includes further
research resources and data files to support file merging and linking,
as well as detailed population and health system data for all California
counties.
- California Office of Statewide Health Planning
& Development (OSHPD)
Quarterly reports (annualized), Disclosure data, Utilization data, and
selected Discharge data, 1996-2001.
- Medicare PPS
Medicare Impact files, 1996 - 2001
- Socio-Demographic Data
California census by County and MSA, Area Resource Files, 1996-2001.
- Research Resources
Hospital ID Files, DRG listings, Maps, Links
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