G. Decision Support System (DSS)

6. How do I use the DSS National Data Extracts?

You can use DSS National Data Extracts (NDEs) to identify health care costs and cost components for each inpatient or outpatient health care encounter in the VA health care system. The extracts include separate files for outpatient and inpatient encounters. Each file contains the total cost of the encounter and fields to identify the patient, the location of service, and the date it occurred. The inpatient file includes subtotals for different categories of cost: laboratory, pharmacy, surgery, radiology, nursing, and all other care. Each of these subtotals is further subdivided into fixed direct, variable direct, and indirect costs.

Because the DSS NDEs do not contain detailed clinical information such as treatments and diagnosis, researchers often need to merge the NDEs to the VA health care encounter files, including the Patient Treatment Files (PTFs) and National Patient Care Database (NPCD) Outpatient files. “The Research Guide to Decision Support System National Cost Extracts: FY1998 – FY2004” by Phibbs, Yu and Barnett The Research Guide to Decision Support System National Cost Extracts: FY1998 – FY2004 provides a detailed description about how to link the DSS NDEs to the NPCD health care encounter files. A recent report entitled “Technical Report #23: Comparison of DSS Encounter-Level National Data Extracts and the VA National Patient Care Database: FY2004" provides updated results of a comparison between these two databases.

View an overview of the Decision Support System (DSS)