USING STATA
    
  There are two ways to read the 2011 NAMCS public-use data file into Stata:

  Option 1 - Use the compressed (zipped) namcs2011-stata.zip in the Stata folder on the FTP server
  to open a complete Stata dataset of the 2011 NAMCS public use data file.  

  The steps for this option are as follows:

  1) Create a new folder on your local workstation, for example, C:\MYFILES\NAMCS2011

  2) Download to the new folder the file namcs2011-stata.zip from the FTP server: 
     ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/dataset_documentation/namcs/stata

  3) namcs2011-stata.zip is a compressed file which must be uncompressed prior to use.
     In order to do this, simply right-click on the file name in a Windows directory screen and
     follow screen prompts to extract the file to your desired location.  When you do this, a new
     file will appear in that folder, about 33MB in size, with the name namcs2011-stata.dta.  This is
     the Stata dataset.

  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 will 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\NAMCS2011

  2) Download to the new folder the 2011 NAMCS dataset (namcs2011.zip) from the FTP server: 
     ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/datasets/namcs

  3) namcs2011.zip is a compressed file which must be uncompressed prior to use.
     In order to do this, simply right-click on the file name in a Windows directory screen and
     follow screen prompts to extract the file to your desired location.  When you do this, a second
     file will appear in the same folder, about 31MB in size, with the name namcs2011 and no file extension.
     Stata requires a file extension to recognize this as a data file, so simply rename it as namc2011.raw.

  4) Download to the new folder the namcs2011.do and namcs2011.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\NAMCS2011\
     do namcs2011

     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.