If you have ANY new exports or exports that have or may have a different format than the previous year, ensure that you have completed full testing of these formats with NPIRS by the March deadline. Our experience has been that if you do not achieve this deadline, you are likely to be unsuccessful when attempting to export all your data to NPIRS by the October deadline.
If you have not previously exported all of your registration data and the initial backload of your encounter data to NPIRS for at least the last three fiscal years, ensure that you successfully complete all of those backloads by the May deadline. Our experience has been that if you do not achieve this deadline, you are likely to be unsuccessful when attempting to export all your data to NPIRS by the October deadline. Ensure that you have exported your data in the proper manner, so that all of your records that should be counted can be counted.
Do not wait until October to perform the bulk of your exports. Ensure that NPIRS receives the bulk of your data well before October; only use October to complete your exports, e.g., visits that occurred during September.
You should perform an export at least once a month so that you can verify the completeness and accuracy of your exported records and fix any errors as they occur. Only by exporting on a monthly or more frequent basis can you avail yourself of all the tools NPIRS provides you to ensure your data is complete and accurate.
Data Submission Deadlines
There are four key data submission deadlines each year:1. March – Complete development and testing of NPIRS/NDW exports from those sites that did not send a compliant format for the previous year's reports or whose format may be changed.
2. May – Complete all the exports for the initial NPIRS/NDW loads from those sites that did not complete initial loads for the previous year's reports.Note: Those sites that cannot confirm that their current export is formatted exactly as previous year’s successful exports need to complete testing of this year’s format by this date (and be sure not to change it until all of this year’s exports are completed). We strongly urge all sites to export their data at regular intervals (ideally monthly) throughout the year.
Note: The initial NPIRS/NDW loads include all registration data, as well as all encounter data for at least the last three fiscal years thru the present (preferably October 1, 2000 thru the present).3. September – Ensure that NPIRS has received all encounter and registration data for the first three quarters of the current fiscal year.
4. October – Final deadline. All data must be received at NPIRS by 11:59 PM on the final deadline, Albuquerque local time, and must be in proper format so that NPIRS can load them without modification.
Deadline Considerations
Waiting until October to export the entire year’s data to NPIRS in a couple of weeks is extremely risky.If you are not successful in sending all of your data in the proper format (i.e., one that NPIRS can load without modification) by the deadline, you risk having lower, or worse, no workload and user pop counts.
In years past, there have been a number of sites that waited until October to try and properly export all of their data. Unfortunately, their data had problems and they ended up running out of time trying to fix those problems prior to the deadline.
NPIRS only has limited time during the month of October and extremely limited time in November to assist you with your last minute export problems. The time they have to devote to your site(s) during these critical times depends upon how many other sites also need their help. It is far, far safer for you to resolve your export problems before October.
