HIFLD/Public Health
The purpose of this page is to document the import of the data in the Public Health category of the HIFLD.
Suitable Data
| Name | Quality | Notes | Status | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospitals | Planned | 8,013 |
License
Due to the ambiguous phrasing of the license statement:
None (Public Use). Users are advised to read the data set's metadata thoroughly to understand appropriate use and data limitations.
I clarified this in an email to HIFLD@hq.dhs.gov. Their response can be found below:
Thank you for your inquiry, William. The dataset you are referring to is being provided for public use.
Best regards,
HIFLD Support Team
Geospatial Management Office (GMO) | Office of the Chief Data Officer (OCDO)
Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) |Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Hospitals
Tagging
| HIFLD Tag | OSM Tag | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| NAME | name | |
| ADDRESS | addr:* | This is parsed into addr:housenumber and addr:street using the usaddress library,
but also provides the original field under |
| CITY | addr:city | |
| STATE | addr:state | I usually remove this from the field because it's redundant with state admin boundaries. |
| ZIP | addr:postcode | |
| ZIP4 | addr:postcode | This is appended to addr:postcode with a hyphen when provided. |
| TELEPHONE | phone | US country code +1 is added and the phone number is converted to use space separators instead of hyphens and parentheses. |
| WEBSITE | website | Trailing slashes are removed and https:// is preprended if an http(s) prefix isn't already present.
On conflict, I check both website URLs to see which one is accurate. |
| STATUS | amenity
disused:amenity |
For closed hospitals, disused:amenity=hospital is used. Otherwise, amenity=hospital is used.
When a conflict arises on this field, I check the website status to see if the hospital is really closed or not. If the hospital has been converted into a clinic (i.e. does not provide inpatient care), the disused tag is still appropriate. |
| BEDS | beds | On conflict, check the website to see if this data is available there. If not, use the existing tagged number.
I've found a few places where the existing tag is accurate and the HIFLD data is not. |
| TYPE | healthcare=rehabilitation
healthcare=psychiatry |
Currently in the script:
Not handled in the script - needs further discussion:
|
| TRAUMA | Does being a certified trauma center imply emergency=yes? Currently this is not handled in the script, but should be considered.
Is there a trauma center certification tag in OSM? There's also a |
Quality
TODO: do an objective measure of quality on 100 data points.
So far the quality of these fields seems to be fairly good, but some areas need manual review before importing. It's important to consider whether entries should be tagged as a hospital or a clinic. The main distinction is that hospitals offer inpatient care. Some entries from this dataset are actually clinics, or were shut down as a hospital and now serve as clinics. This can also be inferred based on the size of the building, type of building (a hospital usually isn't in a retail space), but the website listing provided services is the best way to differentiate. The hours listed can also be helpful for this.
The website field requires special consideration, because hospitals frequently get bought by other organizations or merged, and the website changes domains. Sometimes a search engine is needed to find the new website for a hospital.
The addresses seem especially accurate. There were very few places where address fields were conflicting with existing tags.