New Interactive Dashboard and Data File Feature Health Center Data

Two new developments provide more access to data on visits to health centers in the United States. The National Center for Health Statistics’s (NCHS) Division of Health Care Statistics recently launched an interactive dashboard and released a public use data file from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). These resources feature data collected in the Health Center Component of the survey.

On June 24, the NHCS released an interactive dashboard, Preliminary Estimates of Visits to Health Centers in the United States. This dashboard provides preliminary, biannual national estimates of patient visits to health centers starting from January 2022 through June 2023. In addition, a public use data file containing NAMCS Health Center Component data from 2022 was released at the beginning of July. Researchers, statisticians, and others can use this publicly available dataset to analyze information reported by health centers.

“Health centers, which include federally qualified health centers and look-alikes, serve vulnerable populations who may not be able to receive care at physician offices or other ambulatory care locations. By collecting data on visits to health centers, the NAMCS Health Center Component can facilitate analyses that may yield a better understanding of the care provided at these locations,” noted Jill Ashman, team lead in the Division of Health Care Statistics. A federally qualified health center is a center that participates in the Health Resources and Services Administration Health Center Program. A look-alike is a center that meets requirements of the HRSA Health Center Program but does not receive program funding.

Dashboard Provides Faster and Larger Data Access

Previously, NAMCS collected data manually from a small sample of visits to health centers. With the transition to electronic health records, collecting data for all health center visits in a calendar year is easier and quicker. Electronic data transfer provides faster access to more data and facilitates the release of nationally representative preliminary estimates through an interactive dashboard. The dashboard is to be updated with new preliminary data whenever available, with an update containing data through December 2023 expected later this year.

Importance of NAMCS Public Use File

The NAMCS Health Center Component public use data file contains a sample of visits from participating health centers and is now available for anyone to access. In addition, restricted data files from both the 2022 and 2021 years are now available in the Research Data Center (RDC). These RDC files contain millions of visit records which researchers can examine once their access has been approved.

Next steps for NAMCS public use files include:

• Releasing NCHS reports using visit data from the 2022 NAMCS Health Center Component later this year.
• Collaborating with the NCHS Division of Analysis and Epidemiology to link NAMCS Health Center data to a variety of external data sources to further enhance their analytic capability. The first release of these data are expected by the end of August and will link NAMCS data with administrative data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Development.

The scheduled release of new public data files from the NAMCS Health Center Component are planned to occur approximately every year. The 2022 data files were just released. The release of data from 2023 can be expected in early 2025, and the release of data from the 2024 survey cycle in late 2025. The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey is the longest running health care survey at NCHS.