The Role That Statistics plays in the Healhcare Industry - Essay Example

Various organizations use statistics to make decisions. Health information technology which is based on statistics is a very integral aspect of the health care organizations. For example, in healthcare organizations there are numerous reasons for collecting patients’ data and analyzing it. For instance statistics about activities that take place in the healthcare organization shows the details of the patients and how they have been attended to as well as the cost of the care. The details on patients care statistics and their performance can indicate quality of care offered to them.

Most of the recognized organizations need data analysis system which is used as part of accreditation while many third party payers need facilities in collecting performance data. Healthcare administrators also require statistics in order to prioritize services needed and to establish where efficiency and effectiveness need to be increased. The healthcare facilities are as well interested in kind of patients they attend to in regard to their diagnosis. This is important in that it helps them maintain the top physician specialty mix required in the healthcare organizations.

Moreover the government needs to maintain population statistics so as to establish the number of healthcare institutions needed. As a result the government establishes a health agency which is responsible for ensuring protection of the health of the country’s population. This helps in providing important information which help individuals come up with right healthcare decisions. It is important to recognize that health statistics provides information regarding the health of individuals. Therefore, every individual forms a part of some health statistics just like everyone has birth statistics.

Healthcare statistics are also important in determining the percentage of population suffering from a certain disease hence the diseases prevalence as suggested by Plichta and Garzon (2008). This is important as it helps the government to plan for the healthcare budget which accommodates all individuals. Many healthcare organizations have tried to improve their quality of service and profitability simply because they have not considered application of statistics in their transformation. Those companies which have achieved these is through the application of statistical thinking in reducing process variation.

The use of scientific approach in the analysis of data in any healthcare organization is an important element for improving quality of services. The scientific approach which employs statistics enables studying process variation and relationships via the objective use of data. As a result of this a technology termed as Statistical Process Control (SPC), has been applied in healthcare organizations as a way of understanding, improving and managing the quality of healthcare processes. The SPC helps the healthcare management to realize the performance and the ability of a certain process according to Berger (2008).

Control charts are used in healthcare organizations for complimenting healthcare institution epidemiology techniques through the provision of additional process information. Flowcharts are also used in defining and understanding patients’ status as well as redesigning the process of their treatment. An example of statistics collected in the healthcare situation is presented in table 1 below. One organization that relies heavily on statistics to accomplish its tasks and to make decisions is