The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is pleased to announce the release of its newest Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) database, the 2006 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS). The NEDS is the largest all-payer emergency department (ED) database in the United States.  The NEDS was created to enable analyses of ED utilization patterns and to support public health professionals, administrators, policymakers, and clinicians in their understanding and decision-making regarding this critical source of health care. 

The NEDS has many research applications as it contains information on hospital characteristics, patient characteristics, geographic region and the nature of the ED visits (e.g., common reasons for ED visits, including injuries).  The database includes information on all visits to the ED, regardless of payer — including persons covered by Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance and the uninsured. 

The 2006 NEDS contains data from 26 million ED visits, and encompasses all encounter data from nearly 1,000 hospital-based EDs in 24 states.  The NEDS approximates a 20-percent stratified sample of EDs from community hospitals.  Weights are provided to calculate national estimates pertaining to the 120 million ED visits that took place in 2006.  The database was constructed using records from both the HCUP State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD) and the State Inpatient Databases (SID).  The NEDS provides information on “treat-and-release” ED visits, as well as ED visits in which the patient was admitted to the same hospital for further care.

The 2006 NEDS can be purchased through the HCUP Central Distributor. Some 2006 NEDS data are available in HCUPnet, a free online query system.  More information about the NEDS and other HCUP products can be found on the HCUP-US Web site.  If you have questions, please contact HCUP user support at hcup@ahrq.gov.