This report presents national estimates of the provision and utilization of ambulatory medical care services provided by office-based physicians in the United States during 1993. The estimates are based on data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). The NAMCS, a probability sample survey, began in 1973 and was conducted annually through 1981. It was next conducted in 1985 and resumed an annual schedule in 1989. This report describes the provision and utilization of ambulatory medical care services in terms of patient characteristics (age, sex, and race), physician characteristics (specialty and professional status), and visit characteristics (patient's principal reason for visit, physician's principal diagnosis, checklist of medical conditions, injury-related visits, diagnostic and therapeutic services, and other characteristics).

Data Highlights:
Females had a higher annual rate of office visits (3.3 visits per person) compared with males (2.3 visits per person).
Females had significantly higher visit rates than males in each category with the exception of the youngest (under 15 years) and the two older groups (65-74 years and 75 years and over). Among males, the rate increased with each successive age group after 15-24 years.
More than 6 of every 10 office visits (61.5 percent) were made to primary care physicians.
There was an average of 33 injury-related office visits per 100 persons.
Hypertension was the most common diagnosis rendered by physicians, cited at 3.9 percent of the visits.

This page last reviewed January 11, 2007