The ambulatory workload of office-based neurologists: implications of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

Abstract

Since 1973, the National Center for Health Care Statistics, Hyattsville, Md, has carried out a series of national probability sample surveys—the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). In these studies, only visits to office-based physicians are examined, including health maintenance organizations and clinics that are not hospital based. Visits to physicians in government-operated facilities are excluded, along with visits to hospitalbased physicians and physicians primarily engaged in teaching, research, or administration. Telephone contacts of surveyed physicians with patients or visits carried out in any care setting other than the office are also excluded. I have previously reported results of the 1985 NAMCS.1A major objective of this article is to examine the trends in the ambulatory practice of neurology in recent years by comparing data obtained over time using the same NAMCS protocol.