At a glance
- NAMCS is the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.
- NAMCS collects data about the experiences of office-based healthcare providers working with patients who aren't admitted to a hospital or other facility.
- NAMCS also collects data about patients who visit health centers.
Overview
The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) collects data about medical services provided in offices for patients who aren't admitted to a hospital or other facility. Healthcare professionals call these services ambulatory medical care.
NAMCS collects and releases high quality, objective, reliable information about how ambulatory medical care services are provided and used in the United States.
The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) launched NAMCS in 1973. NCHS conducted the survey annually from 1973 to 1981, again in 1985, and annually since 1989.
Currently, NCHS works with RTI International to collect data for the Provider Survey Component of NAMCS, and Booz Allen Hamilton to collect data for the Health Center Component.
What's collected
NAMCS data are collected directly from two types of ambulatory care providers—
- Office-based physicians and other healthcare professionals who are not employed by the federal government
- Health centers that serve areas and groups with limited access to medical care, including centers that receive federally funds and those that do not
NAMCS does not collect data from radiologists or pathologists. NAMCS also does not collect data from Indian Health Service Centers.
Provider Survey Component
NAMCS uses a survey to collect data from office-based providers. Providers can complete the survey online or by using a paper questionnaire.
Health Center Component
Participating health centers provide facility data in an interview and by submitting electronic health record data.
Data and documentation
NCHS publishes reports, web tables, and other products featuring NAMCS data. NCHS also provides preliminary NAMCS data from health centers in an interactive dashboard. In producing these resources, NAMCS staff prioritizes protecting the privacy of participating healthcare providers, health centers, and patients.
Data files
NAMCS public use data files are available to download in multiple formats. All potentially identifiable information has been removed to ensure the confidentiality of respondents and patients.
Restricted data files are available through the NCHS Research Data Center (RDC) for a fee. To access restricted NCHS data, researchers must submit requests in the Standard Application Process portal. The RDC provides instructions for preparing and submitting an application to access restricted data.
Find data documentation for these datasets at Questionnaires, Data Sets, and Documentation.
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How the data are used
Policy makers, researchers, medical schools, medical associations, public health professionals, and the media use NAMCS data to understand health care in the United States. NAMCS data can answer questions about what medical care is being used, how it is provided, and how that has changed over time.
NAMCS data provide information about—
- Patients who use health center and office-based healthcare providers
- Medical conditions most often seen in health centers
- Diagnosis and treatment services—including prescribing medications—provided in health centers
Analysts can use NAMCS data to estimate national statistics about healthcare provider experiences and medical visits.
Medical diagnoses
NAMCS data cannot be used to estimate how many people have received a specific diagnosis because the data are not representative of the nation's population. NAMCS collects data based on a sample of visits rather than a sample of people.
What's new from NAMCS
2022–2023 Preliminary Estimates of Health Center Visits (08/2024)
2022 NAMCS Health Center Component Public Use File (07/2024)
Resources
Visit these websites to learn more about other NCHS surveys of healthcare providers, including a survey that collected data about ambulatory care services provided by hospitals.