Available Data

Inpatient Discharge Data

PHC4 collects approximately 1.5 million inpatient discharge records from Pennsylvania hospitals every year. There are more than 70 data fields available, including clinical, utilization, and administrative data. Examples of these include diagnosis related groups (DRGs), Major Diagnostic Categories (MDCs), admission type and source, diagnosis and procedure codes, discharge status, length of stay, and charges. Information on patient origin, payer, physician, and facility is also included.

Ambulatory/Outpatient Procedure Data

In addition to inpatient data, we collect approximately 3.5 million ambulatory/outpatient records from Pennsylvania ambulatory surgery centers and hospitals per year. There are more than 70 data fields available, including utilization and administrative data. Examples of these include admission type and source, diagnosis and procedure codes, charges, patient origin, payer, physician, and facility.

Standard and Custom Data

When requesting data, you can choose between standard data and a more customized dataset. When applicable, we provide supplemental physician and facility data files with each data request file. The supporting physician file provides the physician’s name by national provider identifier/license number. The supporting facility file provides a profile of hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. The file includes facility name, type of facility, PHC4 assigned facility ID (PAF number), bed count, region, county, address, and total number of inpatient and outpatient records.

Standard Data

Pennsylvania statewide records, regional records, and specific facility records are available in standard data files. Statewide files include all records regardless of where a patient resides. Regional files are made available by PHC4’s nine assigned geographic areas of the state (view regional map). Regional files include records from the facilities within that region, not patients who are residents of the regional area. Facility files are records from the specific facility.

Custom Data

For more specialized needs, you can submit a request for a specific subset of records from the Pennsylvania statewide database. For example, a custom data request may ask for data related to a specific geographic scope (by county or zip codes) and/or clinical/condition scope (MDCs, DRGs, diagnosis codes, or a combination). Custom data requests may ask for aggregated data, such as the number of cases by DRG. Custom data requests may also include linking data to other data sources upon request, such as the vital statistics data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Revenue Code Detail Data

The Revenue Code Detail data contains very detailed billing information that is provided by Pennsylvania hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. These records are available in the form of a statewide standard inpatient or ambulatory/outpatient dataset. Each individual line item in the Revenue Code Detail data file is a charge amount for different types of room and board, services, equipment, and other charges.

Financial Data

The Financial Data is a statewide standard data file that presents a profile of the financial health of Pennsylvania hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. The data file includes financial, utilization, and payer information by facility per year. The information contained in the file is used in PHC4’s annual Financial Analysis reports.

Data Release Schedule

Inpatient discharge, ambulatory/outpatient procedure, and revenue code detail databases are processed by the date of discharge and released on a quarterly basis. Financial data is released at the end of the year on an annual basis.

• Quarter 1 (Jan. 1 – Mar. 31) is released in October
• Quarter 2 (April 1 – Jun. 30) is released in January
• Quarter 3 (Jul. 1 – Sept. 30) is released in April
• Quarter 4 (Oct. 1 – Dec. 31) is released in July