Outpatient visits by Administrative Parent. A visit is counted as a visit to one or more clinics or units within 1 calendar day at the site of care level. A patient can have multiple appointments, but is counted as only one visit if the collective appointments were within 24 hours.

Patient appointment information is obtained from the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture Scheduling module. The Patient Appointment Information application gathers appointment data to be loaded into a national database for statistical reporting. Patient appointments are scanned from September 1, 2002 to the present, and appointment data meeting specified criteria are transmitted to the Austin Information Technology Center Patient Appointment Information Transmission (PAIT) national database. Subsequent transmissions (bi-monthly) update PAIT bi-monthly via Health Level Seven message transmissions through Vitria Interface Engine (VIE) connections. A Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) program in Austin utilizes PAIT data to create a bi-monthly SAS dataset on the Austin mainframe. This additional data is used to supplement the existing Clinic Appointment Wait Time and Clinic Utilization extracts created by the Veterans Health Administration Support Service Center (VSSC).

The Monthly Program Cost Report (MPCR) replaces the Cost Distribution Report (CDR). The MPCR provides summary information about Veterans Affairs operational costs, Full Time Equivalents (FTE), and workload (number of patient bed days, outpatient clinic stops, etc.). MPCR receives financial data feeds from Decision Support System and workload data feeds from National Patient Care Database, Home Based Primary Care and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Work Measurement in order to provide the VHA with a flexible cost reporting system. The MPCR is assembled from information from all Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs). MPCR is processed monthly and consists of two reports: station level and a national level rollup. These two reports are available to users via Roger's Software Development (RSD) on the Austin Information Technology Center mainframe and CD ROM. The primary users of MPCR are the VAMC staff, VHA Budget Office, Medical Care Cost Recovery, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget.