The Veterans Affairs Central Cancer Registry (VACCR) receives and stores information on cancer diagnosis and treatment constraints compiled and sent in by the local cancer registry staff at each of the 132 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers that diagnose and/or treat Veterans with cancer. The information sent is encoded to meet the site-specific requirements for registry inclusion as established by several oversight bodies, including the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the American College of Surgeons' Commission on Cancer, and the American Joint Commission on Cancer, among others. The information is obtained from a wide variety of medical record documents at the local medical center pertaining to each Veterans Health Administration (VHA) cancer patient. The information is then transmitted to the VACCR. Details collected include extensive demographics, cancer identification, extent of disease and staging, first course of treatment, and outcomes. Data extraction is available to researchers with VA approved Institutional Review Board studies, peer review, and Data Use Agreements.

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.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has now collaborated with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to present information to consumers about the quality and safety of health care in VHA. VHA has approximately 50 percent of Veterans enrolled in the healthcare system who are eligible for Medicare and, therefore, have some choice in how and where they receive inpatient services. VHA has adopted healthcare transparency as a strategy to enhance public trust and to help Veterans make informed choices about their health care.VHA currently reports the following types of quality measures on Hospital Compare:Timely and effective care.Behavioral health.Readmissions and deaths.Patient safety.*Experience of care.

The VA National Drug File is a centrally maintained electronic drug list used by the VA hospitals and clinics. Facilities use the VA National Drug File to check drug interactions, to manage orders, and to send outpatient prescriptions to regional automated mail-out pharmacies. The VA National Drug File includes information on clinical drugs, drug classes, ingredients and National Drug Code (NDC) Directory codes.

The VA National Formulary is a listing of products (drugs and supplies) that must be available for prescription at all VA facilities, and cannot be made non-formulary by a Veteran Integrated Service Network (VISN) or individual medical center. Regarding chemical or biological entities that by law must be submitted to the United States (U.S.) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for pre-marketing approval, only those entities that actually have been approved by FDA using New Drug Application (NDA), Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA), or biologics license, may be added to the VA National Formulary.

The VA Pharmacy Benefits Management Services offer a broad range of services and are committed to provide and deliver Veterans personalized, proactive, patient-driven health care. Our Mission: To improve the health status of Veterans by encouraging the appropriate use of medications in a comprehensive medical care setting. Our Goal: To provide Veterans with reliable, evidence-based medication information in an efficient manner so you along with your health care team can make informed decisions about your medications and improve your overall health.

This report provides information regarding suicide mortality for the years 2001–2014. It incorporates the most recent mortality data from the VA/Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Suicide Data Repository and includes information for deaths from suicide among all known Veterans of U.S. military service. Data for the Joint VA/DoD Suicide Data Repository were obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics’ National Death Index through collaboration with the DoD, the CDC, and the VA/DoD Joint Suicide Data Repository initiative. Data available from the National Death Index include reports of mortality submitted from vital statistics systems in all 50 U.S. states, New York City, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

SPAN receives data from VHA suicide prevention coordinators relating to suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior of Veterans. Data include relevant historical activities and related medical concerns as reviewed in the Veteran's medical record. Data are submitted to VSSC and are cleaned, processed, and managed by statistical staff and program analysts at the VISN 2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention on behalf of the Mental Health Services.

The Spinal Cord Dysfunction (SCD) module supports the maintenance of local and national registries for the tracking of patients with spinal cord injury and disease from both traumatic and non-traumatic causes. SCD includes features for clinical, management, and research staff. Clinicians benefit from the ability to see profiles of SCD patients, ensure that regular annual exams are completed, and measure patient outcomes. Managers have a suite of reports that reflect the resources needed to care for SCD patients. Researchers have access to a national registry for all Veteran SCD patients and their associated health care events.

The Patient Advocate Tracking System (PATS) is a centralized, web based application that records and tracks instances of patient compliments and complaints concerning their care at VA health care facilities. These instances of patient contacts may come from a variety of sources including the patient, family members, congressional members and/or Veterans service organizations on behalf of the Veterans receiving care at VA facilities. This database provides a menu of reports that can be used to track and trend data across Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs). Reports of contact allow the Patient Advocate to trend compliments and complaints, and ensure that issues raised are resolved. The reports include data such as patient demographics, date of contact, method of contact, who made the contact, issues involved, what service was involved, resolution date and resolution status. Data is collected from Veterans Affairs Medical Centers and sent to the VHA Support Service Center (VSSC) where the data is maintained and reports created.