2007 statistics on ambulatory care visits to physician offices, hospital outpatient departments, and emergency departments in the United States. The data, compiled by Susan M. Schappert of the National Center for Health Statistics, estimates 1.2 billion visits and 2.7 billion drugs provided, prescribed, or continued.
Use Cases
- Analyze visit rates and patterns by patient demographics based on age, sex, and geographic region mentioned in the description.
- Study the relationship between poverty levels and healthcare setting utilization based on ZIP Code data.
- Track trends in medication and vaccine provision, such as the 79% increase in viral vaccines from 2006 to 2007.
- Examine the distribution of visit diagnoses, including the prevalence of nonillness and noninjury conditions like general exams.
Strengths
- Provides national-scale estimates for 1.2 billion ambulatory care visits and 2.7 billion drugs.
- Combines data from two established federal surveys: the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.
- Includes longitudinal context with comparisons to 2006 data and trends from 1997 to 2007.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
Provenance
- Source
- National Center for Health Statistics
- Collection Method
- Combined data from the 2007 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.
- Time Range
- 2007, with comparisons to 2006 and trends from 1997.
- Geography
- United States