National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 1995-96

Series 13, No. 142. National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 1995-96. 132 pp. (PHS) 2000-1713. GPO stock number and price forthcoming
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During 1995-96, an estimated 1.4 billion visits were made to physician offices in the United States, an annual average of 715.8 million visits according to a new report "National

Ambulatory Medical Survey, 1995-96." Statistics are presented on selected physician, patient and visit characteristics. The data in this report were collected in the 1995 and 1996 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys (NAMCS). The NAMCS is part of the ambulatory care component of the National Health Care Survey (NHCS) which measures health care utilization across a variety of providers.

Data Highlights:
Females had a higher annual rate of office visits (3.2 visits per person) compared with males (2.3 visits per person) and made 59.4 percent of the visits.
The visit rate increased with each successive age group from 15-24 years to 75 years and older.
More than six of every 10 office visits (61.5 percent) were made to primary care physicians. Seven of every 10 office visits included one or more diagnostic or screening services either ordered or performed.
Acute respiratory infections (excluding pharyngitis) and essential hypertension were frequent principal diagnoses rendered by physicians, cited at 4.1 percent (1995) and 3.5 percent (1996) of visits annually.
There was an annual average of 32.2 injury-related office visits per 100 persons.

Back problems (upper and lower) accounted for the largest proportion of injury-related visits overall (11.1 percent).

Keywords: office visits, physicians, diagnoses, injury, diagnostic services, medications

This page last reviewed October 15, 2008