National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 1997 Summary Advance Data 305. In 1997, 787.4 million visits were made to nonfederally employed, office-based physicians in the United States, which represents about three visits per person. One quarter of the visits were made to general and family physicians, which was significantly higher than the other 13 specialties. This report presents data from the 1997 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 1997. Females also had significantly higher visit rates than males in each age category with the exception of the youngest (under 15 years) and the two oldest groups 65-74 and 75 years and over. The most frequently cited examinations at office visits were skin (8.6 percent of visits), pelvic (7.5 percent), and visual (7.5 percent). Blood pressure (45.8 percent) and other blood tests (12.2 percent) were the leading tests. Imaging was most often in the form of an x-ray and was mentioned at 6.5 percent of the visits. More than one-quarter of the visits had no diagnostic or screening services ordered or provided. There were an estimated 81.7 million injury-related office visits during 1997, or 30.6 visits per 100 persons. Two-thirds of these visits were for unintentional injuries. Keywords: physicians, diagnoses, injury, ICD-9-CM
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January 11, 2007
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