National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2007

The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey
(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 2007 survey, data were collected from 202 OPDs
and 432 EDs. Among the variables included are age, race, and sex of
the patient, reason for the visit, physician's diagnoses, cause of
injury, surgical procedures (OPDs only), medication therapy, and
expected source of payment. For 2007, additional updates and revisions
have been made to both the emergency department and outpatient department data, including modifications to pre-existing variables pertaining but not limited to electronic medical records.