Last month, the NCHS released statistics from its 1997 National Hospital Discharge Survey. The "report presents national estimates of the use of non-Federal, short-stay hospitals in the United States during 1997. Numbers and rates of discharges, diagnoses, and procedures are shown by age and sex." The summary gives average lengths of stays for all discharges, broken down by region, as well as average lengths of stays for selected diagnostic categories, including infant delivery.