Utilization of short-stay hospitals by patients with AIDS: United States, 1984-86.

The number of cases of acquired immunodeficieney syndrome (AIDS) reported to Control (CDC) has increased 19S4, 4,445 cases of AIDS were S,249 new cases were reported, In 1986, 12,932 new cases of the Centers for Disease each year since 1984. In reported to CDC, in 1985, an increase of 86 percent. AIDS were reported, an increase of 57 percent from 1985 (CDC, 1986). During 1986 an estimated 37,000 patients with AIDS were discharged from short-stay non-Federal hospitals (table 1). These patients were hospitalized an average of 16,2 days per episode and used 606,000 days of inpatient hospital care. This is the third year that records have been available on AIDS patients, and each year has shown a substantial gain in the number of AIDS discharges. In 1984 them were about 10,000 AIDS discharges; in 1985 this figure rose to 23,000-an increase of about 122 percent. In 1!M6 the number of AIDS discharges rose to 37,000—an increase of 66 percent from 1985. Thus during the period 19S4-86, 70,000 patients were discharged with a diagnosis of AIDS. These patients used more than 1 million days of hospital care. The statistics presented in this report are based on data collected by means of the National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS), a continuous survey that has been conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) since 1965. The data for the survey are obtained from a sample of short-stay general and specialty hospitals located in the United States. Approximately 192,000 ab­ stracts of medical records were obtained from 407 partici­ pating hospitals in 1984, and 195,000 abstracts were supplied by 414 hospitals in 1985. In 1986, 193,000 ab­ stracts were supplied by 418 hospitals. A detailed report on the design of NHDS was published in 1970 (NCHS, 1977). The NHDS diagnostic data were coded according to the InternationalClassific&”onof Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification, or ICD-9-CM (Public Health Service and Health Care Financing Administration, 1980). Only the 433 records having a specific diagnosis of AIDS were included in this analysis. (See the Technical notes for specific ICD-9-CM codes used.) Unless the year is speci­ fied, data in this report are for the 3 years of data combined because of the relatively small number of cases in the sample. In addition, comparisons are made in this report with NHDS estimates of general hospital utilization for 1984-86. These estimates have been published elsewhere (NCHS, 1986,1987, 1988). In NHDS, the unit of analysis is the hospital discharge, not the individual. Individuals may have one or more hospital episodes during a year. In this report, the terms “discharge” and “patient” are used interchangeably.