RESEARCH CONCEPTS FOR HIM - Research Topic/Problem/Question

Calculating and Reporting Healthcare Statistics

Chapter 1:

Introduction to Health Statistics

Statistics

What are statistics?

Statistic

A number computed from a larger collection of numbers which collectively constitute a sample of data

Statistics

A branch of mathematics concerned with collecting, organizing, summarizing, and analyzing data

Origins of the Term

Originally, “statistics” referred to the collection of information about and for the “State”

Reasons for Studying Statistics

Decision making

In order to make decisions we must have some information

In healthcare, we use statistics to:

Find out why patients come to the facility

Determine the cost of taking care of patients

Determine the quality of care provided

Meet requirements of accrediting agencies

Comply with requirements of third party payors

Prioritize needed services

Maintain physician specialty mix

Transition from Data to Decision Making Data → Information → Facts → Improved Understanding → Better decision making

Data: Unprocessed facts and figures

Data leads to information: Data that are deliberately selected, processed, and organized to be useful

Information leads to the facts: A piece of information presented as the truth

Facts lead to improved understanding: What we know

Improved understanding gives individuals the power to make better decisions

Healthcare Statistics

Health statistics

Provide information about the health of people and their utilization of healthcare services

Figures used in statistics must be

Relevant

Applicability of the statistics

Reliable

Consistency of results

Descriptive Statistics vs. Inferential Statistics

Descriptive statistics

Describe what the data show about the characteristics of a sample

Inferential statistics

Help us make inferences, or a guess about a larger group of data by drawing conclusions from a smaller group of data

The smaller group of data is called a sample

The results obtained from the sample are assumed to be typical

Where Do We Get Health Statistics?

Primary and secondary sources of information

Primary = Health record

Secondary = Disease and operation index (e.g.)

Where Do We Get Health Statistics?

Census

A count of the people and their location

Facility Departments

Keep a count of patients seen and the reason

Vital Statistics (primary information)

Who Uses Health Statistics?

Healthcare administration

Healthcare department managers

Cancer registries

Nursing facilities

Home health agencies

Hospices

Mental health facilities

Who Uses Health Statistics?

Drug and alcohol facilities

Outpatient facilities

Managed care organizations

Healthcare researchers

Accrediting agencies

Government