Once you receive your signed approval letter from the SPARCS Administrator (this can take two (2) to three (3) weeks from the DGC meeting date if applicable), the SPARCS program will ask you how many years of data you wish to receive at this time.
Based on this response, an invoice for the data is created (if applicable) and upon receipt of payment, the data request is then entered into the data request queue, where our vendor will create the extract. The invoicing and payment process can also take a couple of weeks (this can take two (2) to four (4) weeks). If payment is not required, confirmation of years the data request is entered into the data request queue.
Data extracts can take several weeks (two (2) to three (3) weeks) for our vendor to process. Once the SPARCS program has the data extract to send, the SPARCS team will send instructions for receiving the data via ASPERA (an IBM secure, high-speed file transfer tool). See instructions for ASPERA plug-in download.
As you can see, in total, it can take between four (4) to eight (8) weeks to receive the data, depending on the length of the steps in-between.
Note: Per SPARCS submission regulations, submitters have 180 days from last discharge date to submit 100 percent of their data. A calendar year of data is not “deemed” complete until after the compliance/reconciliation process is over, typically around the end of July of the following year. For example, calendar year 2022 data will not be “deemed” complete until mid-August 2023