The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) announces the availability of a new resource, the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey (NNHS), for researchers and policymakers interested in studying the characteristics of nursing homes and residents receiving care, and the clinical management of their care. Results from this survey will be available for release to the public in August.
The 2004 NNHS is a periodic national probability sample survey of nursing homes, their staff, and the residents that they serve. Conducted first in 1973-74, the 2004 survey has undergone a redesign with expanded content and a computerized data collection system. The 2004 NNHS public use micro-data file will be available for downloading at the NNHS website below. Also available are complete file documentation and program code to read and format the data set using SAS, SPSS and Stata.
Detailed web tables with tabulated data will also be available following this upcoming release of the results from the 2004 NNHS. These tables will include data on the characteristics of the facilities, such as information about Medicare and Medicaid certification, bed size, type of ownership, services provided and per diem rates also presented in data files, reports, and web tables from previous surveys. New facility data items also summarized in these tables include: information on special care units and programs; formal contracts with agencies and providers; end-of-life care programs; and electronic information systems.
Data for current residents will be presented by demographics, health and functional status, services provided, primary diagnosis and all-listed diagnoses as presented in previous data files, reports and web tables. Also summarized in these 2004 tables will be new information on residents such as: advance directives, falls, use of restraints, use of special units and programs, hospitalizations, pain management, end of life care, and medications.
The facility and current resident data sets will be available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nnhs.htm. The NNHS is a component of a family of surveys known collectively as the National Health Care Survey (NHCS). For information on other surveys in the long-term care component, ambulatory care, inpatient care and ambulatory surgery components of the NHCS, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhcs.htm.
