Description
The PBM Database is a national database of information
about all prescriptions dispensed within the VHA System
beginning with fiscal year 1999. Outpatient prescription orders filled at a
VA Pharmacy or Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP)
are extracted monthly from each Veterans Health Information
Systems Technology & Architecture (VistA) site and
loaded into the PBM Database.
The database contains the following common data for each
prescription order dispensed for a patient: dosing instructions,
National Drug Code (NDC) where applicable, product name,
ordering provider, drug product costs, quantity dispensed,
formulary status, and VA drug class. Other data elements
are available depending on whether the order was an IV,
unit dose, or outpatient prescription order. The patient’s
scrambled SSN will be provided to researchers if there is a need
to link the PBM data to other data sources.
In addition to dispensed prescriptions, the database
contains information about controlled substance use, and utilization
of medications stored and administered in a clinic or on
a ward (ward stock). This data is not yet available at the patient level. Selected medication-specific lab
results will be available in 2008 for March 2006 forward. All inpatient (intravenous and unit dose) prescription data will be available in 2008 also for fiscal year 2003 forward.
Location
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The PBM Database is a Microsoft SQL ServerTM database
maintained by the PBM Strategic Healthcare Group (PBM/SHG)
located at Hines, IL.
Access
Researchers cannot directly access the PBM database;
instead the PBM/SHG will create a custom extract for the
researcher. To request an extract from the PBM database
a researcher must submit a copy of their IRB approval,
a summary of their study protocol, and a completed PBM/SHG
Research Data Request form to the PBM/SHG.
Documentation
The resources below contain descriptions of the PBM Database
and its contents:
- The
VIReC Research User Guide: VHA Pharmacy Prescription
Data
 provides
detailed descriptions of variables in the PBM Database
from the outpatient, inpatient IV, inpatient unit dose
and provider VistA extracts. This guide also includes
a bibliography of published research using VA pharmacy
data, the Pharmacy User Guide Bibliography 2003.
- A comparison of the PBM Database with other sources
of pharmacy data may be found in the article Pharmacy
Data in the VA Health Care System , available with
permission on the Health Economics Resource Center (HERC)
website.
- The Vista Documentation Library (VDL) includes manuals
that describe the VistA extract process for the PBM Database
and specify which VistA variables are extracted for Version
3.0 and higher. These manuals may be found on the VDL Pharm: Benefits
Management (PBM) Web page.
VIReC
Technical Report 1 reports
a comparison of VA outpatient prescriptions in the DSS
pharmacy NDE and the PBM database.
Help
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PBM Database Contacts:
Cheryl Benson
Administrative Assistant, Outcomes Research
Summer Chapman
Program Specialist, Outcomes Research
Francesca Cunningham, Pharm.D.
Program Manager, Outcomes Research
Pharmacy Benefits Management/Strategic Healthcare Group
(708) 786-7882
PBM Web Sites:
PBM Strategic Healthcare group: http://www.pbm.va.gov/default.aspx
VIReC Contact:
E-mail questions to the VIReC Help Desk
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