VA researchers with appropriate permission who follow Federal privacy regulations may use national data sets that characterize VA hospital stays and outpatient visits.
The VA hospital discharge file is known as the Patient Treatment File (PTF). The PTF is similar to discharge datasets created for Medicare and the health officials in many states. It includes length of stay, type of hospital unit, diagnoses, procedures, and patient demographics. VA data are unique because they include long-term, psychiatric, and other types of care that may not be reported in other discharge datasets.
The VA National Patient Care Database (NPCD) has information on outpatient vists. It includes diagnosis, procedure codes, and patient demographics. The VA Pharamacy Benefits Management data system includes data on individual prescriptions dispensed by VA.
These data sources are documented by the VA Information Resources Center (VIREC).
Additional information about these sources that may be of interest to VA economic researchers may be found on the HERC Intranet site.