National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 1994 Summary

Advance Data 273.  In 1994, 681.5 million visits were made to nonfederally employed, office-based physicians in the United States, which represents about three visits per person. This rate is not significantly different from the 1993 visit rate of 2.8 visits per person. This report presents data from the 1994 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), a national probability sample survey conducted by the Division of Health Care Statistics of the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Data Highlights:

Females made 59.9 percent of all office visits during 1994. Females also had significantly higher visit rates than males in each age category with the exception of the youngest (under 15 years of age) and the two oldest age groups, 65-74 and 75 years and over.

In general, 6.4 percent of office visits in 1994 were made as a result of a referral from another physician, not significantly different from the 6.6 percent noted in 1993.

There were an estimated 84.6 million injury-related office visits in 1994, representing 11.7 percent of all office visits.

Slightly less than three quarters or 71.3 percent of all office visits included one or more tests, procedures, or therapies. Blood pressure check was the most frequently mentioned test performed at 47.7 percent of visits. Blood pressure checks were ordered or provided at a significantly higher proportion of visits by females (52.0 percent) than of visits by males (41.1 percent.)

This page last reviewed January 11, 2007