Method used to develop service line information

Virginia Health Information (VHI) developed this report for Virginia Business using information from the Virginia hospital discharge database administered by VHI. Within each geographic region the five hospitals reporting the greatest number of discharges (for calendar year 2002) for each selected service line are listed. In addition, the physician with the greatest number of discharges reported by the top hospital for each service is reported. VHI verified physician licensing and specialty information using data obtained from the Virginia Board of Medicine.