National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 1994 (ICPSR 6824)

Version Date: Jan 12, 2006

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Principal Investigator(s):
United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06824.v2

Version V2

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Summary

The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) was inaugurated in 1992 to fill a gap in data about ambulatory medical care in the United States. Although the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) collects annual data on patient visits to physician offices, it excludes the hospital emergency room and outpatient department visits that make up a large part of the total ambulatory care received each year. The 1994 NHAMCS provides data from samples of patient records selected from emergency departments (EDs) and outpatient departments (OPDs) of a national sample of hospitals. The resulting national estimates describe the use of hospital ambulatory medical care services in the United States. For the 1994 survey, data were collected from 260 OPDs and 418 EDs. Among the variables included are age, race, and sex of the patient, reason for the visit, physician's diagnoses, cause of injury (ED only), surgical procedures (OPD only), medication therapy, and expected source of payment.

Citation

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics. National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 1994  . [distributor], 2006-01-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06824.v2

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Restrictions

In preparing the data file(s) for this collection, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has removed direct identifiers and characteristics that might lead to identification of data subjects. As an additional precaution, NCHS requires, under Section 308(d) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 242m), that data collected by NCHS not be used for any purpose other than statistical analysis and reporting. NCHS further requires that analysts not use the data to learn the identity of any persons or establishments and that the director of NCHS be notified if any identities are inadvertently discovered. ICPSR member institutions and other users ordering data from ICPSR are expected to adhere to these restrictions.

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Time Period(s)

1993-12-27 -- 1994-12-25

Date of Collection

1994

Data Collection Notes

  1. Per agreement with NCHS, ICPSR distributes the data file(s) and technical documentation in this collection in their original form as prepared by NCHS.

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Sample

The NHAMCS used a four-stage probability design with samples of PSUs, hospitals within PSUs, clinics within hospitals, and patient visits within clinics.

Universe

Visits to the emergency and outpatient departments of noninstitutional general and short-stay hospitals within the 50 states and the District of Columbia that had an average length of stay of less than 30 days, or hospitals whose specialty was general (medical or surgical) or children's general. Excluded were federal hospitals, hospital units within institutions, and hospitals with less than six beds staffed for patient use.

Data Source

patient visit records from hospital emergency departments and outpatient departments

Data Type(s)

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Original Release Date

1996-12-19

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics. NATIONAL HOSPITAL AMBULATORY MEDICAL CARE SURVEY, 1994. 2nd ICPSR release. Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics [producer], 1996. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1997. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06824.v2

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 3 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

1997-05-16 Corrections were made to the data for Part 2, Outpatient Department Data, so that the "year of visit" variable accurately reflects the year.

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.