Significance of Statistical Application in Health Care
Introduction
Statistics in health care is data that concerns the well-being of a person, community or the nation as a whole. This data includes the mortality rate, health cover services, deaths, marriages, and health systems. The data is crucial in all level of health care in decision-making, safety of both patients and health workers, leadership in health management, quality of services, and health promotion. This paper will discuss the significance of all statistical application in health care.
Application to quality
According to research carried out by the U.S Department of Health and Human Resource in 2008, 15,000 patients die every month due to services received in hospital (GRABAN, 2008). This data is overwhelming, considering patients go to the hospital to receive treatment, not get more complication. Further, the same research indicated 44% of these deaths were preventable.
With the right information, the quality of services offered to patients will increase significantly. Statistics from research and clinical trials is made available to doctors and nurses through websites and books that are easy to refer to when treating patients. This data, when well analyzed, helps in prescribing appropriate medication. Moreover, the management of the health facility is able to weigh different approach to services offering though benchmarking other institutions. The data is critical in selecting the pharmaceuticals that offer the best medicine, their side effect, price, and effectiveness. Though the linking of data, the hospital can provide better services and at a reduced cost.
Application in safety
Statistical analysis is the core of safety in the diagnosis and treatment of the majority of diseases. The likelihood of a person to suffer from a disease, for example, heart attacks, is directly related to the environment, body weight, family history, and diet. To incorporate all these factors requires statistics methods. If a doctor is able to analyze this data and project the occurrence of the condition, he/she will advise the patient accordingly to avoid the complication. In addition, cases as safe transfusion of blood, availability, and predication of the need involve data analysis. This needs require identifying possible donors, especially, for people with rare blood groups, and finding ways to control and reduce complications and infections due to transfusions. Assessment of this data is crucial as the patient’s life depends on it.
With the easy access to successful treatment in other facilities, the medical practitioners can diagnosis and patients with the similar condition much safer and faster. In addition, the same way the practitioners can avoid practices that have failed before hence reducing the risk margin. Moreover, the hospital is able to trace a patient’s history like allergies and diagnosis, and what treatment they can apply safely from the vast information in statistical.
Application in health promotion
Different health facilities use different method of management and operation. Through analysis and comparison, organizations borrow ideas and approaches to improve their own. For instance, the facility can improve on the follow up of patients after sending them home by integrating their personal information and medication.
Research field is important in the improvement of healthcare. Statistical analysis tools help to scrutinize the attained data and its implication. With these tools, it would take more time to analyze and apply the results (Bauman, 2002). Moreover, the research data would be hard to interpret without the tools. It is important to for health practitioners to be at par with the improvement in the statistical analysis. Inclusion of analysis is taking the healthcare a step further.
Application in leadership
The amount of data inflow from various disciplines in the health sector is vast. This fact calls for leadership to control, filter, and channel it to the right place. Leaders in the health sector are in a difficult position of deciding on strategies and designs in various departments (Gibson, 2016). With the correct tools, it is easier to make these decisions.
Managers in healthcare facilities have the responsibilities to control the organization. Therefore, these leaders apply statistical analysis to decide on capital allocation, workforce, and resources. The decisions are made on the merits of past research and experience, which influence the best decision-making.
Application in Nursing
In our institution, where I work as a nurse, we obtain statistical data majorly through the medical journal and established health organizations such as World Health Organization Statistical Information System and Center for Disease Control (CDC). These sites provide certified, reliable, and updated information, thus safe to use and apply. The data is available on the computers in the library.
In nursing, it statistical data analysis is vital to the patient’s well-being. In the day-to-day, a nurse has to evaluate this data and understand it (Ogaz, 2016). The nurse, based on his/her interpretation, has to decide on her to proceed, either to report to the doctor in charge offer immediate medication. Moreover, a nurse uses the procedures in the protocol.
We, as the nurses, apply the information in deciding on how to proceed. Depending on the condition of the patient, the nurse will choose to change medication or continue with the current. Moreover, the nurse has the responsibility to change or follow the protocol depending on data interpretation. The decision is also dependent on the experience of the nurse.