Discussion-05

Discussion-05 (two pages)

Given the numerous data sources listed in Chapter 5 of the textbook, select two data sources that could be linked to create an enriched data set for a specific public health research purpose. What are public health’s concerns that the linked data could be used to investigate? Explain your choices. When responding to your classmates, discuss any advantages or disadvantages to using the data sources they selected.

Response one

 When I read the prompt for this discussion, I began to reflect on the sets of data my hospital uses to track diseases and infections. We mainly track infections that occur in the hospital HAI’s.  We also track when patients are readmitted to the hospital with an infection, trying to discern when and where they caught it. The hospital has invested money into efforts to combat patients being readmitted with HAI’s. We currently use a disinfectant that in Canada has been proven to kill clostridium difficile or C-DIFF for short. We have also purchased UV light technology that has cut down on the percentage of patients that get readmitted with this high antibiotic resistant bug. The purpose behind all of this is to accomplish what our motto at ST Charles is: To create America’s healthiest community. All that being said, how can we accomplish this task if we are only tracking what is happening in our building?

Instead of just tracking what happens inside of ST Charles, we need to look beyond our walls and track also what is happening outside, by assessing what diseases are trending in our community at large. So to better inform what is happening in all of Bend, Oregon, there should be a data portal that looks at what is happening in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and doctors’ offices in Bend, to include Deschutes County and beyond. This should be a click and track portal for all the cities and counties that make up the state of Oregon. This portal would report out hospital and other health care facility data, regarding various diseases, to the state health authority.  The data could be easily uploaded onto a user friendly platform by the various cities and counties, in order to track how many cases are occurring and where the outbreak has stemmed from.

Reference:

 

https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/DiseasesConditions/Pages/index.aspx

Response two

Since the beginning stages of the Affordable Care Act, healthcare has been a huge topic of discussion throughout the United States. Working in the registration department of a hospital, I am able to see and experience first hand just how big of an impact health insurance has on a patient. In the registration department a large part of what we do involves insurance companies. This can include obtaining authorizations, collecting liabilities, and confirming if the patient has active coverage. Often times, I see just how much a patient can struggle if these things are not easily available to them. Health insurance statistics allow us to see the patients who were given medical care while covered under prepaid insurance (Friis & Sellers, 2014, p. 248). But what about those patients who are not covered? Do they have less of a chance at a healthy and long life? By linking health insurance statistics with mortality statistics, I believe we can answer the question; is health insurance actually good for our health?

 

Speaking from experience, I tend to see more patients unable to pay their out of pocket cost than those who can. If you are uninsured, that cost only goes up. Insured people who believed that they needed medical care were twice as likely to seek the care they needed than those who are uninsured (Hadley & Cunningham, 2005). This shows a direct link of those who are uninsured not getting the care that they need that can ultimately better than health and life. By combining health insurance statistics and mortality statistics we can find a correlation between the life expectancy of those insured and those who are not. A study performed in Massachusetts found that mortality rates decreased with the integration of a new health insurance law (Legal Montior Worldwide, 2014). This combination of linked data can lead to various changes in the healthcare industry, as well as health insurance reform. 

 

 

 

References:

Friis, R. H., & Sellers, T. A. (2014). Epidemiology for Public Health Practice (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

 

Hadley J, Cunningham PJ. Perception, reality and health insurance: uninsured as likely as insured to perceive need for care but half as likely to get care. Issue Brief (Center For Studying Health System Change). 2005;(100):1-5. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cmedm&AN=16240500&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed January 22, 2019.

 

Study concludes death rates in Massachusetts decreased after health insurance law: The Sunday Brunch. Legal Monitor Worldwide. http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsbig&AN=edsbig.A368548300&site=eds-live&scope=site. Published 2014. Accessed January 22, 2019.