The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) featuring 2016 data is now available. The NEDS is the largest all-payer emergency department (ED) database in the United States that is publicly available. It was created to enable analyses of ED utilization patterns and to support research, public health professionals, administrators, policymakers, and clinicians in their decision-making regarding this critical source of care.

Constructed using records from both the HCUP State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD) and the State Inpatient Databases (SID), the 2016 NEDS contains data from 33 million ED visits in 36 States and the District of Columbia – approximating a 20-percent stratified sample of U.S. hospital-owned EDs. Weights are provided to calculate national estimates pertaining to approximately 145 million ED visits that took place in 2016. The NEDS provides information on patients admitted to the hospital through the ED and on patients treated and released or transferred to another hospital from the ED.

Additional information about the NEDS can be found on the HCUP-US website. The 2016 NEDS can be purchased through the HCUP Central Distributor.