Development of the U.S. Army Ambulatory Care Data Base

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Military Health Systems
• Health Informatics

Background:

• The U.S. Army Medical Department manages over 22 million outpatient visits annually.
• Recognized need for a comprehensive Ambulatory Care Data Base (ACDB) for management, epidemiological, and cost insights.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development and implementation of the Ambulatory Care Data Base (ACDB).
• To address challenges encountered in establishing a large-scale healthcare data system.
• To present preliminary findings from the ACDB.

Main Methods:

• Multi-year study approach for ACDB development.
• Data collection from over 3 million outpatient visits.
• Analysis of healthcare provider types and clinic specialties.

Main Results:

• Successful development of the ACDB to meet identified needs.
• Identification of common health care provider types within the system.
• Cataloging of clinic specialties and associated visit volumes.

Conclusions:

• The ACDB is a valuable tool for the U.S. Army Medical Department.
• The system provides essential data for healthcare management and analysis.
• Ongoing data collection will further inform epidemiological and cost indicators.