Department of Finance & Administration
Mark Emkes, Commissioner

The Division of Health Planning led a delegation from Tennessee to a workshop entitled "Using Administrative Data to Answer State Policy Questions." The group learned how hospital discharge data that the state collects can be used to find out more about healthcare cost, utilization, and quality in Tennessee.

One result of the conference is that a detailed analysis of hospital discharges in Tennessee is now publicly available at www.hcupnet.ahrq.gov. Anyone can use it to find out how often a certain diagnosis is reached in a hospital, compare that number with other states, look at trends over time, find out what the most common or the most expensive procedures performed in hospitals were, comparisons between public and private plan patients, and many other uses.

Attending the conference were Brooks Daverman from the Tennessee Division of Health Planning, Tere Hendricks from the Tennessee Division of Health Statistics, Dong Seigel from Tenncare, Dawn Fitzgerald of QSource, Mary Layne Van Cleave, Jean Young, and Pat Turri of TennCare. Travel and lodging for the members of the delegation was paid for by the federal Agency Health Research and Quality.