A Pitman, Center for Health Quality, Outcomes, & Economic Research and Boston University School of Public Health; U Boehmer, Center for Health Quality, Outcomes, & Economic Research and Boston University School of Public Health; S Loveland, Center for Health Quality, Outcomes, & Economic Research and Boston University School of Public Health; JJ Anderson, Center for Health Quality, Outcomes, & Economic Research and Boston University School of Public Health

Workshop Objectives: Health services research in VA depends on the use of administrative databases and frequently on the merging of several data sources. This workshop is designed to share experiences about data problems that arise while working with VA databases as well as to provide some methods to solve them. The workshop will focus on: 1. Linking previously unlinked outpatient visits recorded in two different data bases, 2. Finding errors in SSNs through use of demographics, 3. Determining patients’ race, 4. Difficulties of assessing the number of recorded procedures, 5. Overlap between outpatient, inpatient and extended care days, and 6. Inconsistencies between BIRLS and other data bases.

Workshop Activities: Workshop participants will be presented with strategies to address data problems and the implications of neglecting to work towards high quality data. They will be invited to discuss the pros and cons of different solutions that will be provided, as well as to share examples from their experience with VA databases and the solutions they have developed.

Target Audience: The workshop is designed for health services researchers who rely on VA data bases in their work and need to be able to interpret results. Further persons who advise others on analyzing VA data or those who do their own programming will benefit from this workshop.

Audience Familiarity: Participants should be familiar with VA databases and have an understanding of the different types of data that can be used to determine utilization, patient demographics.