This hospital file originated from the New Jersey State Police Department in West Trenton. The Center for Health Statistics re-geocoded the original .dbf file using Census TIGER 2000 street files obtained from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
New Jersey Department of Health & Senior Services (NJDHSS) provides these geographic data "as is." NJDHSS does not guarantee the accuracy of information contained in the geographic or attribute data. Additionally, NJDHSS makes no warrenty regarding the data's fitness for any particular purpose. The burden for determining fitness for use lies entirely with the user.
In May 2004, the file was edited to remove closed hospitals or update hospital name changes. The attribute field, Health System, was also added at this time. The source for the hospital system names was the Hospital Financial Reporting & Hospital Support Program, DHSS.
Three fields were also added to reflect the acute care status of each hospital. One field reflects whether each acute care hospital has a burn unit. A second field indicates whether each acute care hospital has a level 1 trauma designation. And a third field indicates whether each acute care hospital has a level 2 trauma designation. Note that any hospital with a level 1 trauma designation is considered to also have level 2 trauma capabilities.
Lastly, a new attribute field, System, was added. These data were first obtained from the New Jersey Hospital Association, then compared to the hospital system names on file with the Hospital Financial Reporting & Hospital Support Program in NJDHSS. There were 17 hospitals with differing hospital systems. The hospital system for each of these 17 hospitals was updated with the NJDHSS data.