This publication describes Version 2 of the Clinical Classifications for Health Policy Research (CCHPR), a diagnosis and procedure categorization scheme, and provides descriptive statistics for 1992 hospital inpatient stays illustrating the use of the CCHPR categories.

This publication describes Version 2 of the Clinical Classifications for Health Policy Research (CCHPR), a diagnosis and procedure categorization scheme, and provides descriptive statistics for 1992 hospital inpatient stays illustrating the use of the CCHPR categories.

Clinical Classifications for Health Policy Research (CCHPR) Version 2 provides a way to classify diagnoses and procedures into a limited number of categories. CCHPR aggregates individual hospital stays into larger diagnosic and procedure groups for statistical analysis and reporting.

This User’s Guide is intended to support the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and quality evaluation of registries created to increase understanding of patient outcomes. For the purposes of this guide, a patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure, and that serves one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. A registry database is a file (or files) derived from the registry. Although registries can serve many purposes, this guide focuses on registries created for one or more of the following purposes: to describe the natural history of disease, to determine clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of health care products and services, to measure or monitor safety and harm, and/or to measure quality of care. Registries are classified according to how their populations are defined. For example, product registries include patients who have been exposed to biopharmaceutical products or medical devices. Health services registries consist of patients who have had a common procedure, clinical encounter, or hospitalization. Disease or condition registries are defined by patients having the same diagnosis, such as cystic fibrosis or heart failure. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews.

"This publication provides descriptive statistics for U.S. hospital inpatient ststays in 1996 using the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample. National estimates are provided for all discharges by principal diagnosis and by principal procedure. Statistics are presented on the number of discharges, mean length of stay, mean charges, charges in quartiles (25th, 50th and 70th percentiles), percent who died in the hospital, percent male, and mean age." -- Publ. web site.