National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 1995 outpatient department summary.

Objective: This report describes outpatient department visits in the United States in 1995. Statistics are presented on selected patient and visit characteristics.

Methods: The data presented in this report were collected from the 1995 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS). NHAMCS is part of the ambulatory care component of the National Health Care Survey, which measures health care utilization across various types of providers. NHAMCS is a national probability survey of visits to outpatient departments and emergency departments of non-Federal, short-stay and general hospitals in the United States. Sample data were weighted to produce annual estimates.

Results: During 1995, an estimated 67.2 million visits were made to hospital outpatient departments in the United States, an overall rate of 25.7 visits per 100 persons. Overall, visit rates did not vary by age. Females and black persons had higher rates of visits than males and whites, respectively. There were an estimated 7.3 million injury-related outpatient department visits in 1995.