Descriptive statistics and Histogram

Descriptive statistics and Histogram

Reducing the monthly hospital readmissions within the U.S.A has been a key element for the current policies in national payments. Measuring patient experiences within the hospital is therefore a requirement from Medicare where hospitals are required to collect and report patient experiences (Wood et al. 2019). To a greater extend, patient satisfaction, readmission, and hospital utilization are influenced by the quality of care being offered by healthcare providers. As a result, such measures can be relied in evaluating the performance of healthcare workers and management. The hospital management is responsible for the overall care performance.  Every new manager would work tirelessly to ensure improved patient satisfaction levels, increased facility utilization, and reduced readmission rates. Below is an analysis of the utilization, satisfaction, and readmission performance of the nursing home since the recruitment of the new department manager 70 months ago. The purpose of the analysis is to determine whether to retain the manager.

Descriptive statistics

Hospital Utilization

The USA hospital utilization rate measures the rate of usage of healthcare facilities by patients. Utilization refers to a group of statistics that help in determining how the population uses available hospital services.  Based on the above table which represents the descriptive statistics, the mean/average hospital utilization rate is 69.8% per month. The median, which refers to the midpoint rate of the utilization distribution frequency, for the nursing facility is 67.8%. Using a 95% confidence level, the statistical standard deviation is 21.6 and the variance is 468.3. Standard deviation and variance measure how the distribution differs from the mean (Frey, 2018). Similarly, the data range is 96.0 which measures the difference between the lowest distribution frequencies (21.4%) to the highest distribution frequency (117.4%). The skewness of the data distribution is 0.24 while Kurtosis is (0.37). The low kurtosis and skewness imply that the data distribution is normal hence there are not extreme outliers.

The median utilization rate within the USA skilled nursing homes has averaged 86.4% in 2015, 85.4% in 2016, 85.1% in 2017, and 84.5% in 2018 (Lima et al. 2020). The facility’s median utilization rate of 67.8% is way below the industry averages.

Patient Satisfaction

A patient satisfaction level is a measure used to determine the quality of the relationship between patients and healthcare providers. It is measured by interviewing patients regarding their perspective on the quality of interaction with caregivers or the care itself. Based on the above descriptive statistics, the mean satisfaction level is 49.4% for the last 70 months. The median, satisfaction level is 51.5%. The mode which refers to the most recorded satisfaction per month is 96%.  The statistical standard deviation is 30.9 and the variance is 955.6.  The range is 97.0, with the lowest satisfaction level recorded as 3 and the highest being 100%. The skewness of the data distribution is 0.12 while Kurtosis is (1.36). Patient satisfaction rates are quite low compared to industry rates.

Readmission Rates

The hospital readmission rate is a healthcare measurement tool that determines the rate at which patients are readmitted to the hospital after discharge. The measure allows the hospital to focus on care quality by preventing unnecessary readmissions or early discharge. The descriptive statistics above show that the mean readmission rate for the nursing home is 10.6 %. This implies that in almost every ten patients discharged, one is readmitted.  The median readmission rate is 10.4%. Besides, the standard deviation is 0.050 and the variance is 0.002. Standard deviation and variance measure how the distribution differs from the mean.  The data range is 0.2 with the lowest readmission rate being 0.007% and the highest being 20.1%. The skewness of the data distribution is 0.01 while Kurtosis is (0.6). The readmission rates remain within the range recorded by most nursing homes in the USA.

Histogram

The shape of the utilization histogram is symmetrical hence the distribution is normal with only one peak at almost the center of the data. The highest frequency occurs between 60% and 80% which means that approximately 63% of the period, the utilization levels were between 60% and 80%. Data ranges between 20 and 120 with an approximate range of 100. There are no outliers for the utilization distribution.

The shape of the satisfaction histogram is skewed to the right with two notable peaks at the extreme ends of the distribution. The highest frequency occurs around 20% and similarly at 100%. Data ranges between 20 and 100 with an approximate range of 80. There are no outliers for the utilization distribution.

The shape of the readmission histogram is symmetrical hence the distribution is normal with only one peak at almost the center of the data. The highest frequency occurs between 0.08 and 0.16 which means that approximately 73% of the period, the readmission rate was between 0.08 and 0.16. Data ranges between 0.04 and 0.2 with an approximate range of 1.6. There are is outliers on the right of the distribution representing two readmission rates of approximately 20.7%.

References

Frey, B. B. (Ed.). (2018). Descriptive statistics. In The SAGE encyclopedia of educational research, measurement, and evaluation (Vols. 1–4). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Lima, J. C., Schwartz, M. L., Clark, M. A., & Miller, S. C. (2020). The Changing Adoption of Culture Change Practices in US Nursing Homes. Innovation in Aging, 4(3), igaa012.

Wood, R. L., Migliore, L. A., Nasshan, S. J., Mirghani, S. R., & Contasti, A. C. (2019). Confronting Challenges in Reducing Heart Failure 30‐Day Readmissions: Lessons Learned With Implications for Evidence‐Based Practice. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 16(1), 43-50.