Ambulatory surgery in the United States, 1996

This report presents estimates of surgical and nonsurgical procedures performed on an ambulatory basis in hospitals and freestanding ambulatory surgery centers in the United States during 1996. Data are presented by types of facilities, age and sex of the patient, and geographic region. Major categories of procedures and diagnoses are shown by age, sex, and region.

The estimates are based on data collected by the 1996 National Survey of Ambulatory Surgery conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. The 1996 data were abstracted from 125,000 medical records in 488 hospitals and freestanding ambulatory surgery centers.