National Health Care Surveys

What's New

Announcements

Adoption and Use of Electronic Health Records and Mobile Technology by Home Health and Hospice Care Agencies [PDF - 176 KB] (5/2013)
Use and Characteristics of Electronic Health Record Systems Among Office-based Physician Practices: United States, 2001–2012 (12/2012)
Hospitalization for Congestive Heart Failure: United States, 2000–2010 (10/2012)
Comparability Between the Rates for All-listed Inpatient Procedures Using National Hospital Discharge Survey and Medicare Claims, 1999 and 2007 [PDF - 257 KB] (9/2012)
Generalist and Specialty Physicians: Supply and Access, 2009–2010 (9/2012)
Wait Time for Treatment in Hospital Emergency Departments: 2009 (8/2012)
Physician Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems: United States, 2011 (7/2012)
Hospitalization for Stroke in U.S. Hospitals, 1989–2009 (5/2012)
Characteristics and Use of Home Health Care by Men and Women Aged 65 and Over [PDF - 130 KB] (4/2012)
Residents Living in Residential Care Facilities: United States, 2010 (4/2012)
2010 NSRCF Facility and Resident Revisions PDF - 19 KB]
New Release: 2010 National Survey of Residential Care Facilities – Public Use Files and Survey Documentation now available on the web.
New Release: Lists of restricted variables for 2010 National Survey of Residential Care Facilities now available on the web
Residential Care Facilities: A Key Sector in the Spectrum of Long-Term Care Providers in the United States: 2010 (12/2011)
Electronic Health Record Systems and Intent to Apply for Meaningful Use Incentives Among Office-based Physician Practices: United States, 2001–2011 (11/2011)
Design and Operation of the 2010 National Survey of Residential Care Facilities [PDF - 2.1 MB] (11/2011)
Physician Assistant and Advance Practice Nurse Care in Hospital Outpatient Departments: United States, 2008–2009 (11/2011)
Blood Pressure Measurements at Emergency Department Visits by Adults: United States, 2007–2008 (8/2011)
Nurse Practitioners, Certified Nurse Midwives, and Physician Assistants in Physician Offices (8/2011)
Community Health Centers: Providers, Patients, and Content of Care (7/2011)
Inpatient Care for Septicemia or Sepsis: A Challenge for Patients and Hospitals (6/2011)
Liquid-based Cytology Test Use by Office-based Physicians: United States, 2006-2007 [PDF - 113 KB] (6/2011)
An Overview of Home Health Aides: United States, 2007 [PDF - 569 KB] (5/2011)
Home Health Care and Discharged Hospice Care Patients: United States, 2000 and 2007 [PDF - 416 KB] (4/2011)
Ambulatory Medical Care Utilization Estimates for 2007 [PDF - 797 KB] (4/2011)
Hospital Preparedness for Emergency Response: United States, 2008 [PDF - 204 KB] (3/2011)
Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Hospice: The National Home and Hospice Care Survey: United States, 2007 [PDF - 327 KB] (1/2011)
Use of Advance Directives in Long-term Care Populations (1/2011)
National Hospital Discharge Survey: 2006 Annual Summary (12/2010) [PDF - 2.3 MB]
Electronic Medical Record/Electronic Health Record Systems of Office-based Physicians: United States, 2009 and Preliminary 2010 State Estimates (12/2010)
Factors Influencing Rural Residents' Utilization of Urban Hospitals (11/2010) [PDF - 191 KB]
Comparison of Home Health and Hospice Care Agencies by Organizational Characteristics and Services Provided: United States, 2007 (11/2010) [PDF - 286 KB]
National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2007 Summary (11/2010) [PDF - 695 KB]
National Hospital Discharge Survey: 2007 Summary (10/2010) [PDF - 403 KB]
Visits to Primary Care Delivery Sites: United States, 2008 (10/2010)
Electronic Medical Record Adoption and Use in Home Health and Hospice (9/2010)
National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2007 Outpatient Department Summary (9/2010) [PDF - 609 KB]
Emergency Department Visits for Chest Pain and Abdominal Pain: United States, 1999-2008 (9/2010)
Population Aging and the Use of Office-based Physician Services (8/2010)
National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2007 Emergency Department Summary (8/2010) [PDF - 612 KB]
Preliminary Data from the 2008 NAMCS and NHAMCS. 2008 NAMCS and NHAMCS public use files to be released soon.
Redesign and Operation of the National Home and Hospice Care Survey, 2007 [PDF - 4.1 MB] (7/2010)
Revised 2007 NHHCS Medication Public Use Micro-Data File [PDF 23 KB] (04/2010)
New NCHS Health E-Stat now available: Electronic Medical Record/Electronic Health Record Use by Office-based Physicians: United States, 2008 and Preliminary 2009 (12/2009)
Revised 2007 NHHCS Patient File public use micro-data files and documentation [PDF - 15 KB] (10/2009)
Revised NHSR No. 11, "Ambulatory Surgery in the United States, 2006,", is now available [PDF - 468 KB] (9/2009)
2007 NHAMCS public use micro-data files and documentation (9/2009)
2007 NAMCS public use micro-data file and documentation (8/2009)
Released: The Redesigned 2007 National Home and Hospice Care Survey
Released: The 2007 National Home Health Aide Survey
The Redesigned National Hospital Discharge Survey [PPT - 80 KB]
First-time National Survey of Residential Care Facilities coming in 2010
Annual ambulatory surgery data coming in 2010
To NSAS 2006 Data Users:
The revised 2006 National Survey of Ambulatory Surgery (NSAS) public use data set is now available for downloading from our website. The revised public use file documentation is also available. We advise anyone who has used the earlier NSAS data set (released in October 2008) to re-run all analyses using the revised data set before reporting or publishing any 2006 NSAS data. The National Health Statistics Report Number 11, entitled "Ambulatory Surgery in the United States, 2006," [PDF - 468 KB]) has been revised and is now available. The reasons for the revision of the NSAS data set, which affected some of the procedure estimates, are discussed at the beginning of the public use file documentation and in the report. The report also explains that some other estimates of standard errors were printed incorrectly in the original report and these have been corrected. Estimates from the original report should not be used.
September 9, 2009

Data coming soon

Medications drug data base system from the 2007 National Home and Hospice Care Survey
2007 Long-Term Care Drug Database System

New data collection efforts

The National Health Care Surveys are constantly being updated to address the most relevant policy questions today and in the future. Click on a topic below to read more about our innovations in a particular healthcare setting.

Ambulatory and hospital care

Physician offices
Emergency and outpatient hospital departments
Ambulatory surgery
Inpatient hospital departments

Long-term care

Residential care facilities
Nursing homes
Home and hospice care providers

Ambulatory and hospital care

Physician offices (National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey 2008)

New data supplement
Cervical Cancer Screening Supplement--administered in 2006, 2007, and 2008 to samples of NAMCS primary care providers who screen patients for cervical cancer. The purpose of supplement is to ascertain what approaches physicians are using to screen for cervical cancer and to manage patients with positive test results.

Sample size expanded
Community Health Centers--in a departure from the traditional NAMCS design where only physicians are sampled, beginning in 2006, the survey includes an additional sample of community health centers, allowing researchers to make estimates for the care they provide. Within community health centers, the NAMCS is sampling mid-level providers, in addition to physicians.

Supplemental survey
Electronic Medical Records--supplemental survey about electronic medical records (EMRs) will be mailed to 2,000 office-based physicians in 2008 as a supplement to the NAMCS. EMR questions are comparable to those in the primary NAMCS survey, but no patient level data are collected.

Emergency and outpatient hospital departments (National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey 2008)

New data supplements

Pandemic and Emergency Response Preparedness Supplement, an extension of the bioterrorism supplements fielded in 2003-2004, this hospital questionnaire will examine various dimensions of hospital preparedness: including training of clinicians to treat weaponizable biological agents and exposures to chemicals and radiation, development of emergency response plans, availability of resources needed to treat such exposures such as negative pressure isolation rooms. The supplement has been updated to reflect newer public health priorities, including emergency response to influenza and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Cervical Cancer Screening Supplement--administered in 2006, 2007, and 2008 to hospitals with outpatient departments which screen patients for cervical cancer. The survey will allow us to examine practices regarding the provision of human papilloma virus (HPV) tests for approved and non-approved uses, cervical cancer screening methods, use of HPV tests as an adjunct to Pap testing, use of HPV test results for managing patients with abnormal Pap tests, and potential impact of HPV testing on lengthening Pap testing screening intervals. Some questions will allow evaluation of adherence to recent national guidelines about use of HPV testing a) as an adjunct to Pap testing and b) for management of patients with abnormal Pap tests.

Ambulatory surgery (National Survey of Ambulatory Surgery 2006)

In 2006, we went back into the field to collect data from hospital-based and freestanding ambulatory surgery facilities for the first time in 10 years. Our 2006 NSAS survey also collected data on facility characteristics. Data and reports will be available in 2009.

Annual data collection!

Ambulatory surgery centers are an increasingly important source of surgical care in the United States. Historically, NCHS collected data from the only nationally representative sample of ambulatory surgery visits in 1994-1996 and 2006. Because of the need for more frequent collection of these data, hospital-based ambulatory surgery centers became part of the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) in 2009. Inclusion of both hospital-based and free-standing ambulatory surgery centers is planned as part of NHAMCS in 2010 and annually thereafter.

Hospital inpatient departments (National Hospital Care Survey)

The National Hospital Care Survey (NHCS) is a new survey started in 2011 that integrates inpatient data formerly collected by the National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) with emergency department (ED), outpatient department (OPD), and ambulatory surgery center (ASC) data collected by the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Currently a sample of 500 non-institutional, non-federal hospitals with six or more beds in the United States is being recruited for this survey. During the first two years of the survey, sampled hospitals will be asked to provide Uniform Bill (UB)-04 administrative claim data for all inpatients, as well as facility-level data through a facility questionnaire. In 2013, in addition to inpatient data, the hospitals will be asked to provide data on the utilization of health care services provided in their EDs, OPDs, and ASCs. Also in 2013, a sample of freestanding ASCs will be recruited. You can learn more about the survey at: /nchs/nhcs.htm.

Long-term care

Residential care facilities (National Survey of Residential Care Facilities)

A new survey of residential care facilities is under construction to be fielded for the first time in 2010.

The National Survey of Residential Care Facilities will be used to address important research and policy questions:

What are the number and characteristics of residential care facilities? Characteristics include number of units and beds; occupancy rate; ownership (profit/nonprofit, chains/stand-alone small businesses); geography and location (urban/rural); and type of facility (e.g., the extent to which facilities provide private rooms and bathrooms and a high level of services). What are admission and discharge policies? What proportion of facilities serve Medicaid beneficiaries, and if not, why not? Do facilities use restraints? Do facilities use negotiated risk contracts?
What services and staff are available in residential care facilities? What services do residential care facilities provide and at what level and cost? What services are included in the basic rate? What services are available for additional charges? What skilled services are available and who provides them? Does the facility use or allow outside providers, such as hospice and home health agencies? What is the staff turnover rate? Do facilities that serve residents with a high level of impairment and health needs have more and better trained staff?
What are the number and characteristics of residents in residential care facilities?
What are residents' sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., age, sex, race, education, ethnic group, family)? What are the residents' health condition and cognitive and functional status? What is the average length of stay in residential care facilities and the reasons for entering and exiting? How do people pay for residential care? What are the charges for care? How do resident characteristics and outcomes vary by type of residential care facility?

Nursing homes (National Nursing Home Survey, National Nursing Assistant Survey)

Our next surveys are still being planned.

Data are now available from the 2004 surveys. Relative to earlier surveys, the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey has many new features, including:

Data on medications taken by current nursing home residents.
Questions on advance directives and end-of-life care.
Information on the professional background of key nursing home personnel.
Data on nursing staffing, including turnover information.

The National Nursing Assistant Survey was conducted for the first time in 2004:

Interviews of nursing assistants were conducted as part of the 2004 NNHS.
Information on nursing assistants' plans to stay in current positions.
Questions on job satisfaction, work environment, and more.

Home and hospice care (National Home and Hospice Care Survey, National Home Health Aide Survey)

The most recent National Home and Hospice Care Survey was conducted from August to December 2007. Data files will be released in 2009 and will have new information on:

Medications
End-of-life care
Staffing
Key administrative personnel
Electronic medical records

Data files will also include a first-time National Home Health Aide Survey:

Interviews of home health aides conducted as part of the 2007 National Home and Hospice Care Survey.
Collecting information comparable to that in the 2004 National Nursing Assistant Survey.