Statistics and Impact on Healthcare

Statistics play a very important role in health care.  They are able to measure disease outcomes, mortality and morbidity rates, groups of individuals at high risk, insurance costs and coverage’s, and a multitude of other factors.  Statistical evidence provides uniformity to abstract situations.  This impacts all aspects of health care from insurance companies, health care institutions, providers, employees, and patients.  Statistics and its impact are gaining momentum as we forge into the electronic era of mandatory health care reporting.

Federal statistics are used to ‘shed light’ on the topic of health care costs and availability. There are two types of surveys most frequently used to measure this data Bureau of Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey (NCS) and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance Component (MEPS-IC) these statistical reviews measure the access, availability, and cost for healthcare to employees and employers.  The NCS collects data such as employee wages and salaries, overtime pay, sick leave, vacation benefits, and health and retirement plans for regulation, investigation and enforcement (Buckley, 2004).  The MEPS-IC survey is more specialized to an in-depth analysis of healthcare benefits such as the cost of individual and family plans, employee contributions, and establishment of level tables.  Statistics impact how the insurance coverage’s are dispersed, who is the source of funding such as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) or private insurance, and which establishments are used to provide health care.  These surveys are conducted annually to ensure that affordable health care is available to everyone and agencies can denote any changes in trends and causation in an effort to offset disparities.

Statistics impacts health care by the creation and regulation of jobs.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2013) “the healthcare sector was responsible for nearly one-third of new healthcare jobs last month” (para, 1) budget cuts in Medicare and funding stand to jeopardize the ability to continue the increase in the employment sector.  The major contributor according to the BLS statistical report is the increased growth in the home health sector.  Since 2012 there have been over 93.000 new jobs created in healthcare (“BLS Report”, 2013).

The following graph represents health care jobs by sectors.  As you can see the home health industry is in second place with a total of 19% of health care jobs. 

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (n.d.)

Statistics can reveal areas in health care that are under serviced or vice versa and ultimately provide ideas of where we need more training and employment efforts.

            Statistical evidence is of no use if we do not understand how it works and develops into scientifically based evidence or what we now call evidence based practice.  Statistical research by nature is ethical, rigorous, and systematic and when these "processes [are] applied rigorously [they] can improve patient care” (Sec. What are the Goals of Health Care Research, para, 4).  The code of conduct for health care professionals is to ‘do no harm’ and provide safe effective health care (“Statistics for Health”, 2004).  Statistics help develop the most current safe and effective treatments.

            The point to statistical health care methods is to improve patient care and ultimately safety.  These methods provide scientific evidence of proven situations good or bad and from there we are able to make suggestions on how to improve quality.  Statistics provides evidence of inequality in health care insurances, coverage’s, or job disparities.  These measures also show changes that have improved health care and how far we have come in patient care and safety.  Statistics will always have its place in health care for consistent monitoring and improvements.

Thanks Chelley                

References

BLS report: Home health sector generates nearly one-third of all new healthcare jobs in august. (2013, Sep 09). PR Newswire. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1430885948?accountid=32521

Buckley, J. E., & Van Giezen, R.,W. (2004). Federal statistics on healthcare benefits and cost trends: An overview. Monthly Labor Review, 127(11), 43-56. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/235649923?accountid=32521

 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (n.d.). Current employment statistics and the ambulatory health care industry. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/ro6/ro6_ces_ambulatory_hc.htm

 Statistics for Health Care Research (2004). Retrieved from www.sagepub.com/upm-data/9572_019596ch01.pdf‎