National Hospital
Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 1997 Outpatient Department Summary
Advance Data 307. In 1997, an
estimated 77 million visits were made to Outpatient Departments (OPDs) of non-Federal,
short-stay, or general hospitals in the United States, about 28.9 visits per 100 persons.
This report presents data on OPD visits from the 1997 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical
Care Survey, which measures health care utilization across various types of providers.
Data
Highlights:
Females
made 59.9 percent of all OPD visits. Visit rates were higher for females than for males in
the age groups between 15 and 44 years of age. Visit rates for black persons were higher
than for white persons overall and in all age categories except among children under 15
years of age.
Progress visits, general medical examinations, and routine prenatal
examinations were the most frequently mentioned reasons for visit.
Imaging was most often in the form of an x-ray and mentioned at 7.5
percent of all visits.
During 1997, there were 109.1 million drugs mentioned at OPD visits. This
yields an average of 1.4 drug mentions per OPD visit or 2.3 drug mentions per drug visit.
Keywords:
Outpatient Department Visits, diagnoses, injury, ICD-9-CM