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

In providing more than 22 million outpatient visits per year, the U.S. Army Medical Department is one of the largest Health Maintenance Organizations in the world. Accordingly, the need for an Ambulatory Care Data Base (ACDB) to provide management, epidemiological, and cost indicators has long been recognized by the Army. As part of a multi-year study, the ACDB was developed to meet this need. Issues and problems faced in implementing such a wide-scale effort are discussed. Preliminary results from data collected on over 3 million outpatient visits include types of health care providers and clinic specialties, with the corresponding number of visits.