The National Health Care Surveys: How CDC Measures American Health Care

How is health care in the United States actually delivered, and to whom? Much of the answer comes from the National Health Care Surveys, a family of surveys run by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). They describe the organizations and providers that deliver care, the services they provide, and the patients they serve.

The surveys

• National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey
• National Electronic Health Records Survey
• National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey
• National Hospital Care Survey
• National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study

What makes them different

• Nationally representative: they reflect the diversity of providers, services, patients and facilities across the United States.
• Provider-based: data come directly from the professionals who deliver care and run facilities, not from patients' recollections.
• Wide-ranging: they cover many settings, showing the variety of ways care is provided.

Data currently come directly from adult day services centers, health centers, hospital emergency departments, hospital inpatient departments, office-based providers and residential care communities. NCHS also analyzes data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and some surveys draw on electronic health records supplied by facilities. The surveys can expand to new kinds of providers as new information is needed.

What they answer

Researchers, policymakers and public health professionals use the data to study:

• what drives the use of health care resources, and how it changes;
• quality and safety of care;
• costs and expenses;
• patterns of care for specific diseases and conditions;
• differences in the services different groups receive;
• use of treatments such as medications, and of technologies such as electronic health records.

Each survey keeps a stable core of topics so trends can be tracked reliably over time, while staying flexible enough to add questions on emerging issues.

For providers and data users

Taking part in some of the surveys can benefit providers and facilities through NCHS's partnership with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' electronic health record incentive programs; learn more. Questions and suggestions about the surveys can go to CDC-INFO.

Sources

Based on "The National Health Care Surveys," National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (October 16, 2024); a work of the United States government in the public domain.