The Veterans Affairs Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP) database resides in the VA National Surgery Office (NSO) and is a quality assurance activity-derived database containing information on all patients who undergo surgery within the VA. The primary purpose of this database is to improve the quality of care for Veterans undergoing surgery by providing information to care provider teams for self-assessment and quality improvement purposes. Data for the VASQIP database are entered by nurse data managers using Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) at the VA surgical facilities. These data captured in VistA are securely transmitted to the VASQIP database for compilation and analysis. Results of the data analysis are reported from the National Surgery Office (NSO) for quarterly and annual review of surgical quality and patient care issues; these data are confidential and privileged under the provisions of 38 U.S.C. 5705 and its implementing regulations. Note: In 2009, the Cardiac Specialty program (Continuous Improvement in Cardiac Surgery Program (CICSP)) was merged with the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) for a comprehensive all-specialty surgical database, VASQIP. It employs both Microsoft SQL Server and Statistical Analysis Software implementation.

The mission of the VA Clinical Assessment Reporting and Tracking (CART) Program for cardiac catheterization laboratories (CART-CL) is to support a national VA reporting system, data repository, and quality improvement program for procedures performed in VA cardiac catheterization laboratories. CART-CL is intended to improve clinical care/communication, support local and national quality improvement, monitor patient safety, capture workload of cardiac catheterization lab procedures, and inform VA system evaluation to maximize operational efficiency and patient outcomes. CART-CL is a collaborative effort between the VA Patient Care Services, Office of Information and Analytics, Ischemic Heart Disease Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (IHD-QUERI), and Office of Information and Technology (OI&T).