National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 1997 summary.

OBJECTIVE: This report describes ambulatory care visits made to physician offices within the United States. Statistics are presented on selected characteristics of the physician's practice, the patient, and the visit. METHODS: The data presented in this report were collected from the 1997 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). NAMCS is part of the ambulatory care component of the National Health Care Survey, which measures health care utilization across various types of providers. NAMCS is a national probability sample survey of visits to office-based physicians in the United States. Sample data are weighted to produce annual estimates. RESULTS: During 1997 an estimated 787.4 million visits were made to physician offices in the United States, an overall rate of 3.0 visits per person. One quarter of these visits were made to general and family physicians, which was a significantly higher proportion compared to the other 13 specialties. Persons aged 75 years and over had the highest rate of physician office visits, 6.5 visits per person. Females had a significantly higher rate of visits to physician offices than males overall, as did white persons compared with black persons. Of all visits made to these offices in 1997, approximately 50 percent listed private insurance as the primary expected source of payment, and almost 30 percent were made by patients belonging to a health maintenance organization (HMO). There were an estimated 81.6 million injury-related visits during 1997, or 30.6 visits per 100 persons. Two-thirds of these visits were for unintentional injuries.

Physician assistants and nurse practitioners in hospital outpatient departments, 1993-1994.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics of visits to physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) in hospital outpatient departments in the United States. METHODS: Data from the 1993 and 1994 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys were used to compare hospital outpatient department visits in which the patient was seen by a PA or NP, or both, with outpatient visits to all practitioners. RESULTS: An average of 64 million annual outpatient visits were made in 1993-1994, and patients were seen by PAs, NPs, or both, at 8% of these visits. PA-NP visits were more likely than total visits to occur in the Midwest, in non-urban areas, and in obstetric-gynecology clinics, and a higher proportion involved patients younger than age 25. Smaller differences were found between PA-NP visits and total outpatient visits in "reason for visit," "principal diagnosis," and "medication prescribed." CONCLUSION: Beyond the care they provide in physicians' offices and other non-hospital settings, PAs and NPs make an important contribution to ambulatory health care delivery in hospital outpatient departments.

National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 1996 summary.

OBJECTIVES: This report describes ambulatory care visits made to physician offices within the United States. Statistics are presented on selected physician, patient, and visit characteristics of ambulatory care visits. METHODS: The data presented in this report were collected from the 1996 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). The NAMCS is part of the ambulatory care component of the National Health Care Survey, which measures health care utilization across various types of providers. The NAMCS is a national probability sample survey of visits to office-based physicians in the United States. Sample data are weighted to produce annual estimates. RESULTS: During 1996, an estimated 734.5 million visits were made to physician offices in the United States, an overall rate of 2.8 visits per person. One quarter of the NAMCS visits were made to general and family physicians, which was significantly higher than the other 13 specialties. Persons 75 years and over had the highest rate of physician office visits, 6.3 visits per person. Females had a significantly higher rate of visits to physicians offices than males did overall, as did white persons compared with black persons. Of all visits made to these offices in 1996, 87 percent were covered by some form of insurance, and 8.7 percent were paid "out-of-pocket." There were an estimated 87.6 million injury-related visits during 1996, or 33.1 visits per 100 persons. Three-quarters of these visits were for unintentional injuries.

National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 1995 summary.

OBJECTIVE: This report describes ambulatory care visits made to physician offices within the United States. Statistics are presented on selected physician patient, and visit characteristics for aggregated ambulatory care visits. METHODS: The data presented in this report were collected from the 1995 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). NAMCS is part of the ambulatory care component of the National Health Care Survey, which measures health care utilization across various types of providers. NAMCS is a national probability survey of visits to office-based physicians in the United States. Sample data were weighted to produce annual estimates. RESULTS: During 1995, an estimated 697.1 million visits were made to physician offices in the United States, an overall rate of 2.7 visits per person. One quarter of the NAMCS visits were made to general and family physicians, which was significantly higher than the other 13 specialties. Persons 75 years of age and over had the highest rate of physician office visits 5.9 visits per person. Females had a significantly higher rate of visits to physician offices than males did overall, as did white persons compared with black persons. Of all visits made to these offices in 1995, 86% were covered by some form of insurance, and 11 percent were paid "out-of-pocket." There were an estimated 81.6 million injury-related visits during 1995, or 31.2 visits per 100 persons. A significantly higher proportion of injury visits were made by white persons compared with black persons. Over two-thirds of all injury visits were for unintentional injuries.