The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announces the release of HCUP Facts and Figures: Statistics on Hospital-Based Care in the United States, 2005, available online at the HCUP-US Website. This statistical report uses the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database to present information about hospital care in 2005, as well as trends in care from 1993 to 2005.

The HCUP Facts and Figures report showcases the wealth of statistics available from the HCUP NIS database. It features an overview of numerous hospital-related topics including general characteristics of U.S. hospitals and the patients being treated; information about the most common diagnoses, conditions, and procedures associated with inpatient stays; data focusing on the costs and charges associated with hospitalizations; and a discussion of uninsured hospitalizations.

Highlights of hospital care in 2005 include the fact that six of the 20 most costly conditions associated with hospitalizations were related to the heart and that 6 percent of all hospital discharges involved a blood transfusion. Examples of trend information presented in the report include findings that the total number of inpatient bariatric surgeries increased 15-fold from 1995 to 2004, but stabilized in 2005; the number of hospital stays for septicemia (sepsis) rose 30 percent from 1997 to 2005; and the number of C-sections grew 67 percent between 1996 and 2005.

HCUP Facts and Figures: Statistics on Hospital-Based Care in the United States, 2005 is located on the Reports page of the HCUP-US Website. For more information, please visit the HCUP-US Website, or contact HCUP User Support at hcup@ahrq.gov.