This public use file is one in a series of event-level public use files drawn from the 2008 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS, SPSS, and STATA programming statements and in SAS transport format, the Emergency Room Visits File provides detailed information on emergency room visits. Data are gathered from a nationally representative sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of emergency room utilization and expenditures for calendar year 2008. Each record represents one, household-reported, emergency room visit reported during the 2008 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 12, as well as rounds 1, 2, and the 2008 portion of round 3 for Panel 13 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2008). The Emergency Room Visits Public Use Data File contains characteristics associated with the emergency room visit, such as, the date of the visit, types of care and services received, types of medicine prescribed during the visit, condition codes, expenditures, and source of payment associated with the visit, and imputed expenditure variables. Update Notes
The documentation for H118E, 2008 Emergency Room Visits File, has been updated to reflect that ERDATEDD, day of visit, is no longer removed from the 2007 Emergency Room Visits file.
Update #1: 11/12/10
The following files have been updated as of November 12, 2010: HC-118F 2008 Outpatient Visits File
HC-118E 2008 Emergency Room Visits File
HC-118D 2008 Hospital Inpatient Stays File
For each file the day of the event has been added: OPDATEDD; ERDATEDD; IPBEGDD and IPENDDD, respectively.
In addition, a correction has been made to the weights for individuals age 65 and older. Any analyses done that includes this population prior to the weight correction will need to be repeated.
*The PDF version of the codebook is recommended for printing; the HTML version is database driven and lets you navigate quickly to details on each variable.
**Right-click on the data file link, then select Save Target As or Save Link As to download the file.
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