Dataset Created: National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, Outpatient Department restricted-data, 2012-2013

The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) collected data about medical services for patients who were treated in hospital emergency and outpatient departments. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) launched NHAMCS in 1992. Data collection from hospital-based ambulatory surgery centers began in 2009. Ambulatory surgery centers provide same-day surgeries without admitting patients overnight. Between 2010 and 2012, NHAMCS also gathered data on visits to ambulatory surgery centers that weren’t located at hospitals (freestanding centers). In 2018, NHAMCS stopped collecting data from outpatient departments. Each emergency department is randomly assigned to a 4-week reporting period. During this period, data for a systematic random sample of visits are recorded by Census interviewers using a computerized Patient Record Form. Data are obtained on patient characteristics such as age, sex, race, and ethnicity, and visit characteristics such as patient’s reason for visit, provider’s diagnosis, services ordered or provided, and treatments, including medication therapy. In addition, data about the facility are collected as part of a survey induction interview.