Statistical application and the interpretation of data is important in health care. Review the statistical concepts covered in this topic. In a 750-1,000-word paper, discuss the significance of statistical application in health care. Include the following:

1. Describe the application of statistics in health care. Specifically discuss its significance to quality, safety, health promotion, and leadership.
2. Consider your organization or specialty area and how you utilize statistical knowledge. Discuss how you obtain statistical data, how statistical knowledge is used in day-to-day operations and how you apply it or use it in decision making.

Three peer-reviewed, scholarly or professional references are required.

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Application of Statistics in Health Care-Solution

Application of Statistics in Health Care

Statistics entails collecting, interpreting, organizing, analyzing, and presenting data concerning probability methods and theories such as assumption testing. In healthcare, statistics aid in making approximations and deriving numerical information such as disease trends, health services coverage, and mortality rates. Essentially, statistics date back to the Crimean war when Florence Nightingale utilized numerical data to provide care to soldiers and decrease their death rates. Similarly, the modern health care sector depends on data-driven strategies to devise interventions and practices and make decisions directed towards improving the overall well-being of the sector. This paper elucidates the significance of health care statistics to promote quality, safety, health promotion, and leadership. The essay will also discuss health care statistics applications in the daily operations of an organization.(Application of Statistics in Health-Care Essay-Sample)

Significance to Quality

Health care statistics aid the healthcare sector in delivering quality goods and services. Managers use statistics to measure success and failures in daily operations. For instance, managers use numerical information to set standards, measure and predict the quality of services provided and devise strategies for improvement in the future (Lin et al., 2018). Secondly, health care professionals use statistics to prioritize their care depending on the patient’s needs and follow up their care with immediate interventions. Health care professionals use statistical data to determine patterns linked to the patients’ signs and symptoms. Statistical knowledge ensures that healthcare professionals make informed decisions and respond to changes in the patients’ medical journey (Hegan, 2018). Reliable health care data also plays an instrumental role in plotting the viability, growth, risks, and beginning and end of innovative medicine. In this case, statistical data collected informs clinical trials conducted to determine the quality of new drugs and treatment technology to evaluate the benefits and risks in health care.(Application of Statistics in Health-Care Essay-Sample)

Significance to Safety

Health care professionals have an objective to promote the safety and well-being of their patients. In the United States, about 2 million new nosocomial infections occur from safety-related issues and result in around 100000 deaths in a year. Secondly, the health care sector encounters a financial cost of close to $20 billion from safety-related problems (NCHS, 2019). Therefore, health care professionals should use their skills, knowledge, and experience to ensure that patients are safe. In this case, the use of Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) promotes safety since health care professionals use proven treatment plans and protocols. For example, nurses use statistical data to evaluate and identify which procedures and techniques have been used previously to curb the spread of infections among patients. The health care sector uses statistical information to identify effective treatments plans and the overall health well-being of the community as safety measures. For that reason, medical researchers have adequate health care information on treatments with sufficient experimental evidence to obtain desired outcomes in their study.(Application of Statistics in Health-Care Essay-Sample)

Significance to Health Promotion

The application of statistics in health care fosters healthcare promotion. Notably, health promotion aids to avert disease risks and promotes overall community well-being. In this case, healthcare professionals use statistics to provide sound and rational decision-making strategies. Therefore, demographic statistics help evaluate individual behaviors that affect life quality and community health well-being. Health care professionals use collected statistical data to identify and match the community’s needs. Possible interventions introduced from the demographic statistical data entail improving cancer screening, immunization of children, community hygiene, and medical camps to sensitize the community to health-related issues such as HIV/AIDS, STIs, and airborne diseases.(Application of Statistics in Health-Care Essay-Sample)

Significance to Leadership

Health care statistics promote able leadership in the health sector. Through statistics, hospital managers make informed decisions on the well-being of the health workers and the patients. Leaders use statistics in resource allocation. For instance, statistics on the number of patients infected with Covid-19 help health care administrators determine the number of beds that need sufficient oxygen supplies. In this case, the managers can apply for grants from the government and use the statistical information collected to validate the need for the requested resources. Henceforth, descriptive statistics will describe the costs alongside the effectiveness and the essence of having ample oxygen supplies for Covid-19 patients. Besides resource allocation, health care statistics assist administrators in reviewing and evaluating the performance of health care professionals depending on the health outcomes of the patients (Bauer, 2017). Essentially, health care statistics are vital in influencing an organization’s operations, practices, and standards which are crucial tenets in leadership.(Application of Statistics in Health-Care Essay-Sample)

Use of Statistical Knowledge in an Organization

In a hospital setting, statistical data come from medical records such as clinical files, laboratory and x-ray results, diseases surveys, billing records, and peer-reviewed information on hospitals’ online websites. For example, nurses obtain information by taking objective and subjective history, tracking the number of patients that have spontaneous deliveries and those that have undergone Caesarian Section in the Obstetrics and Gynecology department. Notably, the collected information is instrumental in determining the care outcomes of different patients. The information is crucial to evaluate different procedures and identify the most effective for promoting patient safety. Subsequently, the statistical information will be forwarded to women’s reproductive health agencies to address abortion and surrogacy policies that are important in the Obstetrics and Gynecology department. Health care statisticians analyze and convert the data into comprehensive reports and forward them to the administrative and management departments to improve operations and decision-making.(Application of Statistics in Health-Care Essay-Sample)

Conclusion

To sum up, statistical information has revolutionized the health care sector in the United States and the overall world. Health care organizations use comprehensive statistical information to improve the quality of goods and services they provide, promote patient and health workers’ safety, and create community awareness through healthcare promotion and leadership strategies crucial for any organization’s operations and management. Statistical data aids in evaluating current and predicting future organizational performance and encourages the use of EBP to ensure patients’ safety. Notably, statistical information promotes sound decision-making and ensures that health professionals understand their field and the patients’ needs to achieve desired outcomes.(Application of Statistics in Health-Care Essay-Sample)

References

Bauer, J. C. (2017). Statistical Analysis for Decision Makers in Healthcare: Understanding and Evaluating Critical Information in Changing Times. CRC Press.

Hagan, J.L. (2018). The Use of Statistics in Healthcare Quality Improvement. JOJ Nurse Health Care, 8(5), 1-3.

Lin, L. Y., Warren-Gash, C., Smeeth, L., & Chen, P. C. (2018). Data resource profile: the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). Epidemiology and health, 40.

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). (2019). Health, United States, 2018. Hyattsville (MD): National Center for Health Statistics (U.S). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus18.pdf