,As of June 28, 2010, the Master Veteran Index (MVI) database based on the enhanced Master Patient Index (MPI) is the authoritative identity service within the VA, establishing, maintaining and synchronizing identities for VA clients, Veterans and beneficiaries. The MVI includes authoritative sources for health identity data and contains over 17 million patient entries populated from all VHA facilities nationwide. The MVI provides the access point mechanism for linking patient's information to enable an enterprise-wide view of patient information, uniquely identifies all active patients who have been admitted, treated, or registered in any VHA facility, and assigns a unique identifier to the patient. The MVI correlates a patient's identity across the enterprise, including all VistA systems and external systems, such as Department of Defense (DoD) and the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN). The MVI facilitates the sharing of health information, resulting in coordinated and integrated health care for Veterans. New Information Technology systems must be interoperable with the MVI and legacy systems will establish integration by October 1, 2012. The Healthcare Identity Management (HC IdM) Team within VHA's Data Quality Program is the steward of patient identity data, performing maintenance and support activities.,

Health Care: All Veterans who received either VA inpatient care, VA outpatient care, purchased (fee basis) care, VA long-term services and support, or VA pharmacy care were included. VA Health Care enrollees who did not seek care from VA during the current year were not included. Veterans who only sought care from a VHA Vet Center were not included. Veterans Health Administration (VHA) provides Health Care.

,The Veterans Affairs Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP) database resides in the VA National Surgery Office (NSO) and is a quality assurance activity-derived database containing information on all patients who undergo surgery within the VA. The primary purpose of this database is to improve the quality of care for Veterans undergoing surgery by providing information to care provider teams for self-assessment and quality improvement purposes. Data for the VASQIP database are entered by nurse data managers using Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) at the VA surgical facilities. These data captured in VistA are securely transmitted to the VASQIP database for compilation and analysis. Results of the data analysis are reported from the National Surgery Office (NSO) for quarterly and annual review of surgical quality and patient care issues; these data are confidential and privileged under the provisions of 38 U.S.C. 5705 and its implementing regulations. Note: In 2009, the Cardiac Specialty program (Continuous Improvement in Cardiac Surgery Program (CICSP)) was merged with the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) for a comprehensive all-specialty surgical database, VASQIP. It employs both Microsoft SQL Server and Statistical Analysis Software implementation.,

,The Report of VA Medical Training Programs Database is used to track medical center health services trainees and VA physicians serving as faculty. The database also tracks the number of U.S. and international medical residents on-duty at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). Information in the database comes from all VAMCs that have residency programs. The Office of Academic Affiliations distributes worksheets and memos to participating VAMCs annually. VAMC personnel enter the information electronically into the database located at the Academic Information Management Center (AIMC) in St. Louis, Missouri. The main user of this database is the Office of Academic Affiliations which uses the reports from the system to assist in its decision making.,

,The VA's Veteran Health Administration, in support of the Open Data Initiative, is providing the number of Veteran enrollees by state/county for fiscal year 2015. For additional information about Veteran Priority Groups, see the data assets metadata.,

,My HealtheVet (www.myhealth.va.gov) is a Personal Health Record portal designed to improve the delivery of health care services to Veterans, to promote health and wellness, and to engage Veterans as more active participants in their health care. The My HealtheVet portal enables Veterans to create and maintain a web-based PHR that provides access to patient health education information and resources, a comprehensive personal health journal, and electronic services such as online VA prescription refill requests and Secure Messaging. Veterans can visit the My HealtheVet website and self-register to create an account, although registration is not required to view the professionally-sponsored health education resources, including topics of special interest to the Veteran population. Once registered, Veterans can create a customized PHR that is accessible from any computer with Internet access.,

,This summarizes VA benefits and health care utilization.,

,Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) is a health care benefit program designed for the dependents of certain Veterans. Administered by the Health Administration Center (HAC), Denver, Colorado, CHAMPVA shares the cost of necessary health care services and supplies with eligible beneficiaries. The CHAMPVA Eligibility & Payment Functions (CVA) database is used by HAC for the administration of the CHAMPVA program.,

A Veteran user is defined as any Veteran who received or used at least one VA benefit or service during the fiscal year. Veteran spouses, Veteran dependents, and active military service members who used VA benefits and services were not included in the analysis. Each Veteran is only counted once in the overall total even if he/she used multiple programs.

,This report describes the number of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) registry Veterans in VHA care in 2015 based on serologic evidence of HCV infection status (HCV Positive) as well as the subset of those with VA laboratory evidence of HCV viremia (HCV Viremic). The difference between the HCV Positive and the HCV Viremic is the number of Veterans with a positive HCV antibody test who do not have VA laboratory documentation of a test for HCV viremia. For more information on data and methods see the HCV General Notes on this website and the Notes at the end of this report.,