This report from the Health Care Cost and Utilization Project from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) covers the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample from 2008, which is used to estimate all inpatient stays throughout the United States. The report also includes data from the 2007 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample.

From the report: 

HCUP Facts and Figures: Statistics on Hospital-based Care in the United States, 2008 presents information from the 2008 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), with trend information as far back as 1993. The NIS consists of discharge records for all inpatients treated in a sample of approximately 1,000 hospitals. These discharges are weighted to represent all inpatient stays in community hospitals across the nation, so this report presents national estimates for the U.S.

In addition, this report contains information from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) for 2007, constructed from data on emergency department (ED) visits from a 20-percent sample of community hospital EDs.

Community hospitals include all non-Federal, short-term, acute care hospitals. This excludes psychiatric and substance abuse facilities, short-term rehabilitation hospitals, and Federal hospitals (Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Indian Health Service).

Full Report: HCUP Facts and Figures: Statistics on Hospital-based Care in the United States, 2008

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2010). HCUP facts and figures: statistics on hospital-based care in the United States, 2008. Wier, L., Levit, K., Stranges, E., Ryan, K., Pfuntner, A., Elixhauser, A., and Vandivort-Warren, R.