USING STATA
    
  There are two ways to read the 2012 NAMCS Community Health Center (CHC) public-use data file 
  into Stata:

  Option 1 - Use the zipped file namcs2012_chc-stata.zip in the Stata folder on the FTP server
  to open a complete Stata dataset of the 2012 NAMCS CHC public use file.

  The steps for this option are as follows:

  1) Create a new folder on your local workstation, for example, C:\MYFILES\NAMCS2012

  2) Download to the new folder the file namcs2012_chc-stata.zip from the FTP server: 
     ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/dataset_documentation/namcs/stata

  3) namcs2012_chc-stata.zip is a compressed file which you must unzip prior to use. In order to do this, 
     double click on the file name in your directory screen; an option to unzip the file should appear.
     A new folder, namcs2012_chc-stata, will probably be created, depending on the software your system uses. 
     The unzipped file namcs2012_chc-stata.dta will be within that folder. This is the Stata dataset. You can then 
     move the file to your preferred location.

     Alternately, you can right-click on the name of the compressed file from your directory screen. On
     the pop-up menu, there should be an option to extract the file to a location of your choosing.

  NOTE: The 2012 NAMCS CHC data file is about 48 MB in size.  

  Option 2 - Use the DO file (*.do) and dictionary file (*.dct) provided in 
  the “Stata Documentation” section of the Ambulatory Health Care Data website, 
  (under Public Use File Documentation) along with the flat data file (*.zip) 
  in the “Downloadable data files” section, to create a Stata dataset. The file that
  is created should be identical to the file described in Option 1 above. 

  The steps for this option are as follows:

  1) Create a new folder on your local workstation, for example, C:\MYFILES\NAMCS2012

  2) Download to the new folder the 2012 NAMCS CHC dataset (namcs2012_chc.zip) from the FTP server: 
     ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/datasets/namcs

  3) namcs2012_chc.zip is a compressed file which must be uncompressed prior to use. In order to do this, 
     double click on the file name in your directory screen; an option to unzip the file should appear.
     A new folder, namcs2012_chc, will probably be created, depending on the software your system uses. 
     The unzipped file namcs2012_chc will be within that folder. You can then move the file to your preferred 
     location.

     Alternately, you can right-click on the name of the compressed file from your directory screen. On
     the pop-up menu, there should be an option to extract the file to a location of your choosing.

     NOTE: Stata requires a file extension to recognize this as a data file, so simply rename it as 
     namcs2012_chc.raw.
     
  4) Download to the new folder the namcs2012_chc.do and chcdict2012.dct files from the FTP server:
     ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/dataset_documentation/namcs/stata

  4) Open Stata, then open "New Do-file Editor" from the taskbar and enter the following script, making
     sure to point to the folder on your local workstation where you have saved the Stata files:
  
     cd C:\MYFILES\NAMCS2012\
     do namcs2012_chc

     Once this script is in the editor, you can Run Stata from the taskbar.
 
     A note on labels:

     It should be pointed out that Stata will not allow value labels for 
     character (string) format variables.  In the case of NAMCS and NHAMCS data, 
     there are a number of character or string variables, such as DIAG1 (physician's 
     first-listed diagnosis), etc.  For some character variables, we have been able 
     to redefine them as numeric without changing their basic structure and the 
     labels should work.  However, for the diagnosis variables (DIAG1, DIAG2, DIAG3) which 
     actually contain alpha characters (eg "V") in the string, this was not able to be done.  
     We do also have a numeric recode version of the DIAG variables (DIAG1R, DIAG2R, DIAG3R), 
     but these will not match with the character format of the ICD-9-CM codes in many cases, 
     and we do not have a set of labels that match with the numeric recode variables for 
     diagnosis codes.        

     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.