Decision Support System (DSS) – How does the Decision Support System (DSS) estimate cost?
DSS extracts the VA general ledger (Financial Management System) and the VA payroll system (PAID). FMS and PAID keep track of expenditures by Budget Object Code. The codes distinguish the type of expense, identifying specific job categories (e.g, physicians, nurses, etc), or type of supplies or equipment. These systems also track expenditures by the service, using administrative entities such as nursing, laboratory, or medicine. Neither the Budget Object Code nor the service correspond to a particular location where patient care is provided. Data must be entered into DSS to allocate costs to cost centers that are defined by their function. This allocation of cost is done by the Account Level Budgeter. Costs are assigned to Account Level Budget Cost Centers (ALBCC). These cost centers consist of patient care departments, such primary care clinics, intensive care wards, or psychiatric units, as well as overhead departments, such as administration or environmental services. Data on employ
