Sample Configurations

It has been suggested that the VistA community should be able to share configuration information about VistA. This page is intended to be a beginning page to collect various configuration information about possible ways to setup VistA as a working system for someone who is learning.

To collect the pages together, please use the "slash" or / to group together the pages about a particular configuration.

Common Patients

To make things consistent, each of these configurations may refer to patients available from pages whose titles start with the text: SamplePatient/ with links to the individual pages from SamplePatient/StartPage

The most common configurations that have been suggested are:

MicroPractice

A "micropractice" is a practice where the doctor is the entire practice. This means the doctor has to schedule patient appointments, examine and treat patients, order labs and prescriptions, and bill patients.

The configuration for this would be stored at pages whose titles start with the text: MicroPractice/ with links to the individual pages from MicroPractice/StartPage

Small Practice

Small Doctors' Practice where there are one to five doctors working together, usually with a small support staff in common. This means that different people have responsibility to schedule patient appointments, examine and treat patients, order labs and prescriptions, and bill patients. Each of the doctors bill separately, and usually have individual records on each patient, possibly because they have different specialties. When a doctor quits the practice, their records are not expected to be available to other people in the practice, as they are considered to be independent doctors sharing resources in common. It may be the case that this extends to each doctor paying a "share" of the common expenses/salaries/supplies/etc. or it may be the case that these costs are tracked individually.

The configuration for this would be stored at pages whose titles start with the text: SmallPractice/ with links to the individual pages from SmallPractice/StartPage

Small Clinic

A Small Clinic is very similar to a Small Doctors' Practice where there are one to five doctors working together, usually with a small support staff hired by common entity, the clinic. This means that different people have responsibility to schedule patient appointments, examine and treat patients, order labs and prescriptions, and bill patients. A clinic is a distinct configuration because the Small Clinic as a whole shares the records for the patients. The doctors work for the clinic and even when they leave, the records stay with the clinic. Small Clinics may actually have staff that fills some of the lab orders or pharmacy prescriptions, although not necessarily all of them.

The configuration for this would be stored at pages whose titles start with the text: SmallClinic/ with links to the individual pages from SmallClinic/StartPage

Large Clinic

A Large Clinic is very similar to a Small Clinic where there are multiple doctors working together, and with a support staff in common. This means that different people have responsibility to schedule patient appointments, examine and treat patients, order labs and prescriptions, and bill patients. A clinic is a distinct configuration because the Large Clinic as a whole shares the records for the patients. More than just the doctors work for the clinic, and more services are inside the clinic. Not only are orders made for labs and prescriptions, they actually might be done by people who are employees of the clinic.

The configuration for this would be stored at pages whose titles start with the text: LargeClinic/ with links to the individual pages from LargeClinic/StartPage

Small Hospital

A Small Hospital is more than a larger Large Clinic where there are mulitple doctors working together, usually with a large support staff. This means that different people have responsibility to schedule patient appointments, examine and treat patients, order labs and prescriptions, fulfill the labs and prescriptions, and bill patients. A Small Hospital is a distinct configuration because just as the Small Clinic and Large Clinic share the records for the patients, in the same way, the hospital shares records within its confines. In a small hospital, it is more likely that the doctors who refer the patients to the hospital might be the same doctors who provide care in the hospital, but there are more specialist doctors in hospitals that don't provide general medical care.

The configuration for this would be stored at pages whose titles start with the text: SmallHospital/ with links to the individual pages from SmallHospital/StartPage

Large Hospital

A Large Hospital is more than a larger Small hosptital where there are mulitple doctors working together, usually with a large support staff. This means that different people have responsibility to schedule patient appointments, examine and treat patients, order labs and prescriptions, fulfill the labs and prescriptions, and bill patients. A Large Hospital is a distinct configuration because both hospital types share the records for the patients with all other care employees. In a large hospital, it is less likely that the doctors who refer the patients to the hospital will be the same doctors who provide care in the hospital, but there are more specialist doctors in hospitals that don't provide general medical care.

The configuration for this would be stored at pages whose titles start with the text: LargeHospital/ with links to the individual pages from LargeHospital/StartPage