USING STATA WITH NAMCS COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER DATA
    
  There are two ways to read the 2014 NAMCS Community Health Center Public Use Data File into Stata:

  Option 1 - Use the zipped file namcs2014_chc-stata.zip in the Stata folder on 
  the FTP server to open a complete Stata dataset of the 2014 NAMCS Community Health Center (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\CHC2014

  2) Download to the new folder the file namcs2014_chc-stata.zip from the FTP server: 
     ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/dataset_documentation/namcs/stata

  3) namcs2014_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. Specify the desired location to unzip
     the file to and click on the Unzip option.  A new unzipped file should then appear, 
     called namcs2014_chc-stata.dta. 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.

  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\CHC2014

  2) Download to the new folder the 2014 NAMCS Community Health Center dataset (namcs2014_chc.zip) from 
     the FTP server: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/datasets/namcs

  3) namcs2014_chc.zip is a compressed file which must be unzipped 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. Specify the desired location to unzip
     the file to and click on the Unzip option.  A new unzipped file should then appear, 
     called namcs2014_chc with no extension. This is the NAMCS Community Health Center dataset. 
     You can then move the file to your preferred location. 

     IMPORTANT: Stata requires a file extension to recognize this as a data file, 
     so simply rename it as namcs2014_chc.raw.

  4) Download to the new folder the namcs2014_chc.do and chcdict2014.dct files from the FTP server:
     ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/dataset_documentation/namcs/stata

  5) 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\CHC2014\
     do namcs2014_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, etc.) which 
     actually contain alpha characters in the string, this was not able to be done.  

     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 or email at ambcare@cdc.gov.