CoCASA General Questions and Answers

General Questions

Q: We like to sort our providers by specialty (Pediatrician, Family Practice, etc). Should we just select ‘Other’ in the Provider Type variable and enter the specialty there?

A: It is important to first understand how the Provider Type variable functions in the database before selecting 'other'. 'Provider type' is an important variable for the summary reports that you need to produce for the annual VFC Management Survey. Currently, the report reviews the 'Provider Type’ field and classifies the provider as ‘Public’ or ‘Private’. For example, the options ‘public health dept clinic’ and ‘FQHC’ are classified as ‘Public’ in the report and the option ‘private practice’ and ‘hospital based - private’ are classified as ‘Private’ in the report. So, if you select ‘other’ for your pediatricians who are private physicians, these visits cannot be incorporated into the report summary of your activities as they cannot be included with either public or private visits. We are considering adding a variable for ‘Provider Specialty’ to a future version of the software.

Q: How is the variable ‘The number of children eligible in the practice’, located on the Visit Information screen, best determined? We find that most of our providers do not know how many children they have in the 24- to 35-month-old age group.

A: The ‘number of eligible children in practice’ variable is not a required field. To get this information, most assessors ask the provider for an estimate, or take it from a computerized list of age-eligible patients. If you don't think the provider can give a good estimate (or a computerized list is not available) then leave the field blank.

Q: Is there a limit on how long a Custom Question can be?

A: Yes. The limit is currently set at 255 characters (for the multiple choice question option this includes both the question and the answers). However, if you exceed 150 characters, you will not be able to see the entire text of the question.

Top of Page