!WARNING -- DATA USE RESTRICTIONS! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE USING The Public Health Service Act (Section 308(d)) provides that the data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), may be used only for the purpose of health statistical reporting and analysis. Any effort to determine the identity of any reported case is prohibited by this law. NCHS does all it can to assure that the identity of data subjects cannot be disclosed. All direct identifiers, as well as any characteristics that might lead to identification, are omitted from the dataset. Any intentional identification or disclosure of a person or establishment violates the assurances of confidentiality given to the providers of the information. Therefore, users will: 1. Use the data in this dataset for statistical reporting and analysis only. 2. Make no use of the identity of any person or establishment discovered inadvertently and advise the Director, NCHS, of any such discovery. 3. Not link this dataset with individually identifiable data from other NCHS or non-NCHS datasets. BY USING THESE DATA, YOU SIGNIFY YOUR AGREEMENT TO COMPLY WITH THE ABOVE-STATED STATUTORILY-BASED AGREEMENTS. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The following is a list of files needed to use the 2005 NHDS: File Name File Description NHDS05.PU.TXT NHDS 2005 ASCII dataset nhds05.pdf NHDS 2005 documentation in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. This file also contains all necessary population spreadsheets (for rate calculations) and standard error tables. *NOTE: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view the documentation file. The Reader software can be downloaded for free from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html CAUTION - Because the NHDS is a sample survey, the application of weights to the sample data is needed in order to produce national estimates of inpatient hospital utilization statistics. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For questions concerning NHDS data, please contact: Hospital Care Statistics Branch Division of Health Care Statistics National Center for Health Statistics Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 3311 Toledo Road Hyattsville, Maryland 20782 Phone: 301.458.4321 Fax: 301.458.4032 Email: NHDS@cdc.gov For more information about the NHDS, visit our website: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/hdasd/nhds.htm For email discussions and dissemination of NHDS data, join our Hospital Discharge and Ambulatory Surgery Data listserv (HDAS-DATA). In the body of an email message (leaving the subject line blank), type: subscribe hdas-data Your Name Send this message to: listserv@cdc.gov For additional information on NCHS data products, contact the: Data Dissemination Branch, NCHS 3311 Toledo Road Hyattsville, Maryland 20782 Tel: (301) 458-INFO E-mail: nchsquery@cdc.gov Internet: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/