Description

For all persons eligible for the Access to Care section (ACCESSELIG) who have a usual source of care provider (USUALPL) that is a hospital (USCMEDTYP) and provided a main reason for having a hospital as their usual source of care (WHYUSCHOSP), USHOSYTIME indicates that individuals use the hospital as their primary source of care because it is the only care available when they have time to go, in addition to the main reason they specified in WHYUSCHOSP. Persons who reported a main reason for using the hospital as their usual source of care were asked to report any additional reasons, and could list more than one reason as part of this follow-up question.

USHOSYTIME is collected as part of the Access to Care section, which gathers information on usual source of care for all family members, characteristics of usual source of care health providers, and barriers family members have faced in obtaining needed health care. Please see WHYUSCHOSP for all variables pertaining to why the respondent uses a hospital as their usual source of care and ACCESSELIG for more information about the Access to Care section.

IPUMS MEPS reports the universe for each variable based on a thorough review of the original MEPS documentation. Investigating the data may reveal cases that do not meet the stated universe. Users are encouraged to validate universes for their analyses.

Comparability

Users should note that the Access to Care variables are not designed to yield full-year estimates in 1997, as the section is only administered in Round 2 instead of Rounds 2 and 4. The 1997 AHRQ documentation advises that "The 1997 Access to Care variables cannot be used to make full-year estimates, but can be useful in such analyses as trend analyses, or for enhancing subgroup analyses. These variables may be of particular interest because of the 1997 oversample of populations (such as poverty, children with activity limitations, adults with functional limitations, high medical expenditure cases, and the elderly) where access issues are particularly relevant" (C-16). Because USHOSYTIME is only collected in Round 2 in 1997 instead of Rounds 2 and 4, USHOSYTIME cannot be used to make a full-year estimate in 1997. Otherwise, this variable is comparable over time.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2001

Weights

• 1996-2001 : PERWEIGHT

Flags