Physician Office Visit Data

Data Source

National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), Physician Office Visit Data

NAMCS, Physician Office - Injury Summary

Medical information about patient visits includes up to three reasons for the visit as expressed by the patient, up to three physician diagnoses, checklists of diagnostic/screening services and procedures ordered or provided, and up to six medications that were either ordered, supplied, administered, or continued at the visit. Diagnoses are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). Reasons for the visit and medications are coded using classification systems developed by NCHS.

Injury-specific elements vary by year. For 2001-02, injury-specific elements included up to three causes of the injury in the form of verbatim text that was also coded to ICD-9-CM external cause of injury codes.

Beginning with data year 2005 neither the NAMCS nor the NHAMCS-Outpatient Department will be collecting mechanism of injury. Intent will be available from a check box item.

The data collection instrument for this survey is a one-page questionnaire called the Patient Record Form.

Publications

Recent NCHS Publications Using NAMCS Injury Data:

National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2004 Summary

Advance Data No. 374

This report presents practice characteristics of office-based physicians in the United States along with selected trends from 1994 to 2004 from both office visit and physician practice characteristics.

Injury - Number and percent for injury-related office visits by intent and mechanism.

Recent NAMCS publications available online

Public use data

Public-use microdata files may be downloaded in ASCII format. These files generally require the use of statistical software such as SAS, SPSS, or Stata to read the data.  Downloadable data files and documentation are available for all survey years (1973-2002).  Downloadable files for 1993-2002 include masked design variables needed for variance estimation software as well as SAS input, label, and format statements. Similar enhancements will be made to earlier years of data as staff resources permit. Stata and SPSS program statements will be available for 2002 data.

Public-use data are also available on CD-ROM in Statistical Export and Tabulation Software (SETS) format. The CD-ROM version of the NAMCS public-use files is accessed via SETS retrieval software included on the CD-ROM. SETS was developed by NCHS and uses a menu-driven system to generate user-defined tables. NAMCS CD-ROMs contain single years of data. They are currently available for 1990-2002. Public-use data tapes are also available for all survey years through 1997. CD-ROMs and tapes can be obtained by contacting Susan Schappert: e-mail: SSchappert@cdc.gov

Tools and Frameworks

Barell Matrix

The Barell Matrix is a two-dimensional array of three-, four-, and five-digit ICD-9-CM injury codes grouped by the body region of the injury and the nature of the injury and was developed by the International Collaborative Effort on Injury Statistics

Listserv

Contact information

David Woodwell

Phone: (301) 458-4592

E-mail: Dwoodwell@cdc.gov

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National Center for Health Statistics
3311 Toledo Road
Hyattsville, MD 20782
Phone:
1-800-232-4636
nchsquery@cdc.gov

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30333, U.S.A
Tel: (404) 639-3311 / Public Inquiries: (404) 639-3534 / (800) 311-3435