Description and Use of the Multiple Records

on the DSRS Phase I Facility Data Files

There are two DSRS Phase I facility data files:

1 - "qx_merge", which is the raw Phase I facility data as collected, without imputation for missing data; and

2 - " imp_merge", which is the main analytic imputed Phase I facility data file, containing imputations or estimates for selected missing data items. (See Appendix D of the DSRS Data File Documentation for a description of the imputation process and a list of the imputed variables.)

Below is a description of the construction and use of the Phase I data files. The same format and use applies to both the imputed and unimputed Phase I data files.

The Phase I facility files each contain data for 1,183 unique sampled facilities, designated by a separate OBS_NUM for each facility. Both Phase I data sets, however, contain 1,986 records, because some of the facilities have more than one modality of care, e.g., hospital inpatient care, residential care, outpatient care, etc. Therefore, there are multiple records for facilities with more than one type of care, i.e., a master facility record containing all the facility data and an additional record for each additional type of care. The master facility record contains data for the first listed modality of care, which for most facilities is the only modality of care.

For simplicity, all variables in the additional multiple records were set to missing except for the facility identification variables, the modality indicator, and the client demographic count variables for that modality, i.e., the variables of interest for the additional modalities. This left all variables intact at the master facility level, and kept only the facility ID and modality-specific data on the additional records.

The variable which indicates whether a record is a master facility or not is SEQ11. If SEQ11 equals 1, it is a master facility. Otherwise (SEQ=2, 3, etc.), the record represents additional modalities of care for the master facility. As stated above, those records with SEQ11 not equal to 1 have missing values for all variables other than the facility ID and the modality-specific client demographic counts. All facility-level data must be obtained from the master facility record with SEQ11=1. The variable SEQ11CNT indicates how many sequences or records there are for each facility.