Hospital data includes discharges of New Hampshire residents from Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine hospitals between 2000 and 2004. However, data is missing for Massachusetts hospitals for the last 3 months of 2004 resulting in a loss of 2 percent of total 2004 data. This data quality issue results in somewhat lower rates for 2004, especially in Southern New Hampshire.

Inpatient and Emergency Department Acute Care Hospital Discharge data is collected under New Hampshire statute RSA 126:25 that requires all NH facilities to report discharge data to the NH Department of Health and Human Services. Records of discharges of NH residents that occurred in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine are obtained by the Department through special interstate data exchange agreements with the agencies in those states responsible for collection of discharge data. Those agencies are the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, the Maine Health Data Organization, and the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration.