The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), collects data on visits to physician offices to describe patterns of ambulatory care delivery in the United States. As part of NAMCS, the Physician Induction Interview collects information about practice characteristics at physician offices. Partway through the 2020 NAMCS, NCHS added questions to the Physician Induction Interview to assess physician experiences related to COVID-19 in office-based settings.

The data include nationally representative estimates of experiences related to COVID-19 among office-based physicians in the United States, including: shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the past 3 months; the ability to test for COVID-19 in the past 3 months; providers testing positive for COVID-19 in the past 3 months; turning away COVID-19 patients in the past 3 months; and telemedicine or telehealth technology use before and after March 2020. Estimates were derived from interviews with physicians in periods 3 and 4 of 2020 NAMCS and periods 1 through 4 of 2021 NAMCS, which occurred between December 15, 2020 and May 6, 2022. The data are considered preliminary, and the results may change with the final data release.

The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) is a national survey designed to meet the need for objective, reliable information about the provision and use of ambulatory medical care services in the United States. Findings are based on a sample of visits to non-federally employed office-based physicians who are primarily engaged in direct patient care. Physicians in the specialties (including designated sub-specialties) of anesthesiology, pathology, and radiology are excluded from the survey. The survey was conducted annually from 1973 to 1981, again in 1985, and annually since 1989.
Data collection from the physician, rather than from the patient, provides an analytic base that expands information on ambulatory care collected through other NCHS surveys. Data about the physician and their practice characteristics are collected during a survey induction interview.
For survey years 1973 to 1991, there are two data files: one for patient visit data and a second for drug mention data. The second file is limited to those visits with mention of medication therapy. For the 1991 data, it is possible to link information on the drug file with information on the patient visit file. Beginning with the 1992 survey year through 2011, one main data file was produced annually that contains both patient visit and drug information.

The purpose of the National CLAS Physician Survey was to understand the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services among office-based physicians. The National CLAS Physician Survey was a supplement to the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), which is a national probability sample survey of visits to office-based physicians. NAMCS is a component of the National Health Care Surveys that measured health care utilization across a variety of health care providers’ settings. NAMCS and the National CLAS Physician Survey were conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The National CLAS Physician Survey public use file includes data from office-based physicians. No patient level data were collected. This documentation describes the public use micro-data file produced from data collected in the National CLAS Physician Survey.

The purpose of the National CLAS Physician Survey was to understand the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services among office-based physicians. The National CLAS Physician Survey was a supplement to the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), which is a national probability sample survey of visits to office-based physicians. NAMCS is a component of the National Health Care Surveys that measured health care utilization across a variety of health care providers’ settings. NAMCS and the National CLAS Physician Survey were conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The National CLAS Physician Survey public use file includes data from office-based physicians. No patient level data were collected. This documentation describes the public use micro-data file produced from data collected in the National CLAS Physician Survey.

Since 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics has fielded a mail survey of office-based physicians, the National Electronic Health Records Survey (NEHRS). ONC helps fund this supplement to track office-based physician adoption and the use of EHRs for health information exchange and patient engagement. Starting in 2010, the NEHRS's sample size was increased to allow for state-level estimates. The data set estimates each measure nationally and individually for each state and the District of Columbia beginning in 2010, unless otherwise noted.

Data on visits to physician offices, hospital outpatient departments and hospital emergency departments by selected population characteristics. Please refer to the PDF or Excel version of this table in the HUS 2019 Data Finder (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/contents2019.htm) for critical information about measures, definitions, and changes over time. Note that the data file available here has more recent years of data than what is shown in the PDF or Excel version. Data for 2017 physician office visits are not available.

SOURCE: NCHS, National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. For more information on the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, see the corresponding Appendix entries at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus17_appendix.pdf.

Electronic prescribing (eRx) is a key component of the meaningful use of health IT to improve health care quality and lower costs. This dataset includes national and state eRx and health information exchange activity by community pharmacies and office-based health care providers active through the Surescripts Network. Surescripts is a health information network, and ONC procured electronic prescribing activity data conducted within its network from December 2008 through April 2014. The Surescripts network is used by the majority of all U.S. community pharmacies to rout prescriptions, excluding closed systems such as Kaiser Permanente. These include chain, franchise, and independently owned pharmacies. Data for annual percentages of new and renewal prescriptions routed through the Surescripts network exclude controlled substances. You may view more information about Surescripts, contact the company, and access more network data through the company's official site.

The CMS EHR Incentive Programs provide incentives to eligible office-based providers and hospitals to adopt electronic health records. Both the Medicare and Medicaid programs have separate criteria and eligible participants. These measures track the percentage of physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, short-term general, Critical Access, and Children's hospitals that have demonstrated meaningul use of certified electronic health record technology and/or adopted, implemented, or ugraded any electronic health record. These measures track the rate of adoption and use of EHR technology certified by HHS in addition to adoption of other non-certified EHR technology. These measures are cumulative, representing the most recent data.

Electronic prescribing (eRx) is a key component of the meaningful use of health IT to improve health care quality and lower costs. This dataset includes county-level electronic prescribing (eRx) and health information exchange activity by community pharmacies and office-based health care providers active through the Surescripts Network. Surescripts is a health information network, and ONC procured electronic prescribing activity data conducted within its network from December 2008 through April 2014. The Surescripts network is used by the majority of all U.S. community pharmacies to rout prescriptions, excluding closed systems such as Kaiser Permanente. These include chain, franchise, and independently owned pharmacies. Data for annual percentages of new and renewal prescriptions routed through the Surescripts network exclude controlled substances. You may view more information about Surescripts, contact the company, and access more network data through the company's official site.

The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) is a national survey designed to meet the need for objective, reliable information about the provision and use of ambulatory medical care services in the United States. Findings are based on a sample of visits to non-federally employed office-based physicians who are primarily engaged in direct patient care. Physicians in the specialties (including designated sub-specialties) of anesthesiology, pathology, and radiology are excluded from the survey. The survey was conducted annually from 1973 to 1981, again in 1985, and annually since 1989.
Data collection from the physician, rather than from the patient, provides an analytic base that expands information on ambulatory care collected through other NCHS surveys. Data about the physician and their practice characteristics are collected during a survey induction interview.
For survey years 1973 to 1991, there are two data files: one for patient visit data and a second for drug mention data. The second file is limited to those visits with mention of medication therapy. For the 1991 data, it is possible to link information on the drug file with information on the patient visit file. Beginning with the 1992 survey year through 2011, one main data file was produced annually that contains both patient visit and drug information.