American Hospital Association Data

Hospital characteristics across time for health services research and market analysis.

What is American Hospital Association Data?

A hospital data source made available to Cornell researchers through CCSS, in conjunction with the Cornell University Libraries that has been used by Cornell researchers looking at topics ranging from Racial/Ethnic variations in discharge destination after inpatient care, the impact of accountable care organization participation on hospital patient experience, to community partnerships, safety-net hospitals, and readmission rates. See the Cornell-Authored articles and dissertations below for additional examples of Cornell researchers who have used this data in preparing their publications.

The dataset includes the following:

A comprehensive hospital database for health services research and market analysis.
Compiled from 5,786 - 6,334 hospitals surveyed each year
Supplemented by data from the American Hospital Association registration database, the US Census Bureau, hospital accrediting bodies, and other organizations
Variables on organizational structure, facilities and services, total facility beds, utilization, finances, and staffing
Provides trends across time, particularly useful for researchers
The current dataset provides access to 2010-2022 data. If you want earlier or more recent data, please contact us at socialsciences@cornell.edu to discuss

In addition, CCSS provides access to the AHA Annual Survey IT Database

Years 2010 and 2012-2015
Information on healthcare technology adoption
Indicators in response to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act
3,283 - 3,539 hospitals surveyed each year

How to Access American Hospital Association Datasets

Each American Hospital Association’s Annual Dataset is available to current Cornell affiliates for direct download upon completion of the following required steps: The download request starts here.

Each year’s data is a separate archive record. Select a year within your period of interest and click on “Data & Documentation” in the archive record.
Select a file for download.
The data archive Acceptable Use Policy and AHA’s requirements will appear when requesting your first file for download. Review these terms. Then,
In the box labeled “Your Project Description / Objectives.” provide a summary description of your project and check the box indicating you agree to the terms and conditions.
CCSS Archive staff will seek authorization from AHA to share the data with you, based on your description. (Please note this is not automatic and you will need to return once permission is granted to actually download the files.)
If approved by AHA, permission will be granted to download the data. This will give you access to the entire run of Annual Survey data held by CCSS.

IT Database access

The process is the same for the IT database, except that all years of the data are in one catalog record here.

Citing American Hospital Association Data

The AHA datasets all have suggested citations in their catalog records. For the Annual Survey, the format is as follows:

American Hospital Association. American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey Database - [year]. Catalog no. [Catalog ID]. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. Cornell Center for Social Sciences [distributor]. [date dataset was added to archive]. Version 1.

As the IT survey dataset is one catalog record, the recommended citation does not change depending on the year, and it is as follows:

American Hospital Association. American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey IT Database, 2010; 2012-2015. Catalog no. 2773. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. Cornell Center for Social Sciences. Chicago, IL: American Hospital Association. Health Forum [distributor]. 2016-02-26. Version 1.

Can’t Find the Health Data You Want in Our Archive?

The CCSS Data & Reproduction Archive has many datasets with the subject heading of health services and medical care here.
CCSS membership in ICPSR provides Cornell affiliates access to their wide-ranging collection of datasets, including the Health & Medical Care Archive. You will need to register using your Cornell email address to download data.
As a Cornell affiliate, you may contact us using this form to inquire about the data you seek.

Have Additional Questions About This Data?

Please get in touch with us at socialsciences@cornell.edu for assistance.

How Do I Get Cited When I Use American Hospital Association Data?

Please inform us of your publication that used this data so we can add it to our bibliography of related articles.

Alabi, Olamide, Massarweh, Nader Nabile, Zheng, Xinyan, Jialin, Mao, and Yazan Duwayri. "Examining Care Fragmentation After PAD Interventions: The Readmission Event." Journal of Vascular Surgery Volume 77 Issue 1 (2023-01): E18-E19 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvs.2022.11.019.

Burke, Laura G., Khullar, Dhruv, Zheng, Jie, Frakt, Austin B., Orav, E. John, and Ashish K. Jha. "Comparison of Costs of Care for Medicare Patients Hospitalized in Teaching and Nonteaching Hospitals." JAMA Network Open Volume 2 Issue 6 (2019-06-07): e195229 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.5229.

Cabral, Marika, Carey, Collen M., and Jinyeong Son. "Partial Outsourcing of Public Programs: Evidence on Determinants of Choice in Medicare." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series Issue 31141 (2023-04) https://doi.org/10.3386/w31141.

Carlos, Marissa. "Essays in Health Economics." Cornell Theses and Dissertations https://doi.org/10.7298/94bd-be89.

Chatterjee, Paula, Sinha, Soham, Reszczynski, Olivia, Amin, Anita, and William L. Schpero. "Variation And Changes In The Targeting Of Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital Payments." Health Affairs Volume 41 Issue 12 (2022-12): 1781-1789 https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.00153

Cheon, Ohbet, Baek, Juha, Kash, Bita A., and Stephen L. Jones. "An exploration of community partnerships, safety-net hospitals, and readmission rates." Health Services Research Volume 55 Issue 4 (2020-08): 531-540 https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.13287.

Choi, Jee-Hun. "Three Essays in Health Economics and Industrial Organization." Cornell Theses and Dissertations https://doi.org/10.7298/3j47-1v55.

Dean, Emma Boswell, Johnson, Phyllis, and Amelia M. Bond. "Physician, Practice, and Patient Characteristics Associated With Biosimilar Use in Medicare Recipients." JAMA Network Open Volume 4 Issue 1 (2021): e203477 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.34776.

Diana, Mark L., Zhang, Yongkang, Yeager, Valerie A., Stoecker, Charles, and Catherine R. Counts. "The impact of accountable care organization participation on hospital patient experience." Health Care Management Review Volume 44 Issue 2 (2019-04): 148-158 https://doi.org/10.1097/HMR.0000000000000219.

Ghosh, Arnab Kumar, Geisler, Benjamin P., and Said Ibrahim. "Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic variations in hospital length of stay: A state-based analysis." Medicine Volume 100 Issue 20 (2021-05-21): e25976 https://doi.org/10.1097%2FMD.0000000000025976.

Ghosh, Arnab Kumar, and Said Ibrahim. "4301 Racial/Ethnic variations in discharge destination after inpatient care: A risk-adjusted analysis of a large regional dataset." Journal of Clinical and Translational Science Volume 4 Issue S1 (2020): 88-89 https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2020.278.

Goyal, Parag, Kneifati-Hayek, Jerard, Archambault, Alexi, Mehta, Krisha, Levitan, Emily B., Chen, Ligong, Diaz, Ivan, Hallenberg, James, Hanlon, Joseph T., Lachs, Mark S., Maurer, Mathew S., and Monika M. Safford. "Prescribing Patterns of Heart Failure-Exacerbating Medications Following a Heart Failure Hospitalization." JACC: Heart Failure Volume 8 Issue 1 (2020): 25-34 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2019.08.007.

Jaber, Diana, Vargas, Fabian, Nguyen, Linh, Ringel, Joanna, Zarzuela, Kate, Musse, Mahad, Kwak, Min Ji, Levitan, Emily B., Maurer, Mathew S., Lachs, Mark S., Safford, Monika M., and Parag Goyal. "Prescriptions for Potentially Inappropriate Medications from the Beers Criteria Among Older Adults Hospitalized for Heart Failure." Journal of Cardiac Failure Volume 28 Issue 6 (2022-06): 906-915 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2021.11.014.

Kamal, Hooman, Parikh, Neal S., Chatterjee, Abhinaba, Kim, Luke K., Saver, Jeffrey L., Schwamm, Lee H., Zachrison, Kori S., Nogueira, Raul G., Adeoye, Opeolu, Diaz, Ivan, Ryan, Andrew M., Pandya, Ankur, and Babak B. Navi. "Access to Mechanical Thrombectomy for Ischemic Stroke in the United States." Stroke Volume 52 Issue 8 (2021-08): 2554-2561 https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.033485.

Khullar, Dhruv, Tian, Wei, and Rishi K. Wadhera. "High-Performing and Low-Performing Hospitals Across Medicare Value-Based Payment Programs." JAMA Health Forum Volume 3 Issue 7 (2022-07-22): e221864 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.1864.

Kung, Alina, Li, Diane G., Lavery, Jessica A., Narang, Bharat, and Lisa Diamond. "Characteristics of Cancer Hospitals with Written Language Access Policies." Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health Volume 25 (2023-04): 282-290 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-022-01399-5.

Lee, C. Christopher, Park, Soomin, and Benjamin S. Lee. "Impacts of Decision Support Systems on Hospital Efficiency: A Data Envelopment Analysis Model." Journal of Applied Business and Economics Volume 25 Issue 1 (2023): 212-223 https://doi.org/10.33423/jabe.v25i1.5917.

Miyawaki, Atsushi, Khullar, Dhruv, and Yusuke Tsugawa. "Processes of care and outcomes for homeless patients hospitalised for cardiovascular conditions at safety-net versus non-safety-net hospitals: cross-sectional study." BMJ Open Volume 11 (2021): e046959 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046959.

Sterling, Madeline R., Ringel, Joanna Bryan, Pinheiro, Laura C., Safford, Monika M., Levitan, Emily B., Phillips, Erica, Brown, Todd M., Nguyen, Oanh K., and Parag Goyal. "Social Determinants of Health and 30-Day Readmissions Among Adults Hospitalized for Heart Failure in the REGARDS Study." Circulation: Heart Failure Volume 15 Issue 1 (2022-01) https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.121.008409.

Unlu, Ozan, Levitan, Emily B., Reshetnyak, Evgeniya, Kneifati-Hayek, Jerard, Diaz, Ivan, Archambault, Alexi, Chen, Ligong, Hanlon, Joseph T., Maurer, Mathew S., Safford, Monika M., Lachs, Mark S., Parag Goyal. "Polypharmacy in Older Adults Hospitalized for Heart Failure." Circulation: Heart Failure Volume 13 Issue 11 (2020-11): e006977 https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.120.006977.

Vest, Joshua R., Unruh, Mark Aaron, Freedman, Seth, and Kosali Simon. "Health systems’ use of enterprise health information exchange vs single electronic health record vendor environments and unplanned readmissions." Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association Volume 26 Issue 10 (2019-10): 989-998 https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocz116.

Vest, Joshua R., Freedman, Seth, Unruh, Mark Aaron, Bako, Abdulaziz, and Kosali Simon. "Strategic use of health information exchange and market share, payer mix, and operating margins." Health Care Management Review Volume 47 Issue 1 (2022-01): 28-36 https://doi.org/10.1097/HMR.0000000000000293.

Vohra, Adam S., Khullar, Dhruv, Kaushal, Rainu, and William L. Schpero. "Many Intensive Care Units Were Overloaded While Nearby Hospitals Had Excess Capacity During The COVID-19 Pandemic." Health Affairs Volume 42 Issue 7 (2023-07): 937-945 https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01657.

Wang, Lucy Xiaolu. "Essays on Innovation and Digitization in Health Care Markets." Cornell Theses and Dissertations (2020-05) https://doi.org/10.7298/zbs8-t457.

Wang, Lucy Xiaolu. "The complementarity of drug monitoring programs and health IT for reducing opioid-related mortality and morbidity." Health Economics Volume 30 Issue 9 (2021-09): 2026-2046 https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4360.