USING STATA A pre-made Stata data set has been created for the 2012 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Emergency Department (NHAMCS-ED) Public Use File. The steps to use this file are as follows: 1) Create a new folder on your local workstation, for example, C:\MYFILES\NHAMCS2012 2) Download to the new folder the file ed2012-stata.zip from the FTP server: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/dataset_documentation/nhamcs/stata/ 3) ed2012-stata.zip is a compressed file which must be uncompressed prior to use. In order to do this, simply click on the file name in a directory screen; a pop-up screen should appear. Follow the instructions to save the file to your desired location. NOTE: This Stata data set was created from a SAS data set, using SAS's PROC EXPORT, which is able to save variable names and value labels to the Stata format. However, it should be pointed out that Stata will not allow value labels for character (string) format variables. In the case of NHAMCS data, there are a number of character or string variables, such as DIAG1 (physician's first-listed diagnosis), MED1-MED12 (medications), CAUSE1-CAUSE3 (cause of injury), etc. For labels for these variables, one may consult the SAS formats provided or look up the codes using the references provided in the Public Use Data File Documentation. If data users experience difficulties or have suggestions for future releases of these products, please contact the Ambulatory and Hospital Care Statistics Branch at 301-458-4600.