The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) is a national survey designed to meet the need for objective, reliable information about the provision and use of ambulatory medical care services in the United States. Findings are based on a sample of visits to non-federally employed office-based physicians who are primarily engaged in direct patient care. Physicians in the specialties (including designated sub-specialties) of anesthesiology, pathology, and radiology are excluded from the survey. The survey was conducted annually from 1973 to 1981, again in 1985, and annually since 1989.
Data collection from the physician, rather than from the patient, provides an analytic base that expands information on ambulatory care collected through other NCHS surveys. Data about the physician and their practice characteristics are collected during a survey induction interview.
For survey years 1973 to 1991, there are two data files: one for patient visit data and a second for drug mention data. The second file is limited to those visits with mention of medication therapy. For the 1991 data, it is possible to link information on the drug file with information on the patient visit file. Beginning with the 1992 survey year through 2011, one main data file was produced annually that contains both patient visit and drug information.

These data include counts and rates of emergency department visits from 2016-2022 for selected primary diagnoses and reasons for visit, stratified by selected patient and hospital characteristics.
Search, visualize, and download these and other estimates from over 120 health topics with the NCHS Data Query System (DQS), available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/dataquery/index.htm.

List of footnotes, notes, and source information for The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS). Each row of this dataset contains the accompanying text for a footnote found in NHAMCS dataset. The footnote lookup can be merged onto any NHAMCS dataset using, DATASET_SHORT_NAME, FN_ID, FN_TYPE, and FN_TEXT.

SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics CDC, The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS)

The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) is a national survey designed to meet the need for objective, reliable information about the provision and use of ambulatory medical care services in the United States. Findings are based on a sample of visits to non-federally employed office-based physicians who are primarily engaged in direct patient care. Physicians in the specialties (including designated sub-specialties) of anesthesiology, pathology, and radiology are excluded from the survey. The survey was conducted annually from 1973 to 1981, again in 1985, and annually since 1989.
Data collection from the physician, rather than from the patient, provides an analytic base that expands information on ambulatory care collected through other NCHS surveys. Data about the physician and their practice characteristics are collected during a survey induction interview.
For survey years 1973 to 1991, there are two data files: one for patient visit data and a second for drug mention data. The second file is limited to those visits with mention of medication therapy. For the 1991 data, it is possible to link information on the drug file with information on the patient visit file. Beginning with the 1992 survey year through 2011, one main data file was produced annually that contains both patient visit and drug information.

The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) is designed to meet the need for objective, reliable information about the provision and use of ambulatory medical care services in the United States. NAMCS began in 1973 as a national probability sample survey of visits to nonfederally employed office-based physicians. NCHS conducted the survey annually through 1981, again in 1985, and annually through 2021 (collection of visit data from physicians was stopped during 2020–2021 due to the burden placed on respondents by the COVID-19 pandemic). In 2006, a separate sample of Community Health Centers (CHCs) was added to the survey; the CHC component samples visits to both physicians and advanced practice providers (nurse practitioners, PAs [physician assistants and physician associates], and certified nurse midwives). Starting in 2012, in addition to the traditional NAMCS file, a separate data file for CHCs including physicians and advanced practice providers has been released.

In 2021, the former CHC sample of NAMCS was redesigned and launched as the NAMCS Health Center (HC) Component, collecting visit data from HCs using electronic health records, or EHR, systems of the participating health centers. The NAMCS Health Center Component contains critical data about health centers and the care they provide.