ou are going to present data that have been collected to your administrative group. The focus is on outcome measures and the data collected are unplanned readmission rates at two different hospitals. What format would you choose to display your data and why? What information would you include with the data?
Discussion 7.2: Displaying Data
Unplanned hospital readmissions indicate poor health care practices and negative patient outcomes. It is one of the common parameters used in continuous quality improvement (Gupta & Fonarow, 2018). The best method to display data regarding unplanned hospital readmissions is visualization. This method of data presentation involves the use of visual elements such as graphs, charts, and maps. In this particular case, graphs and charts can be of more use to show the administration groups a clear picture of what is happening (Healy, 2019). Visual elements such as graphs and pie charts will tell a story that is hidden within the numbers. For instance, a graph will show a visual presentation of a sharp rise or drop in hospital readmission numbers over a specific timeframe (Healy, 2019). By seeing the lines or the bars, the administration group can compare the two hospitals and understand the trends.
The information that can be included with the data includes the number of hospital readmissions within a specific time. The type of ailments the patients suffered from is also an important insight to include (Gupta & Fonarow, 2018). This information is important to understand if there is a problem in an area of treatment such as catheterization or surgery. Those experiencing readmissions may be grouped in categories such as gender or age to determine the more affected individuals. This kind of classification can lead to more appropriate decisions to address the problem (Gupta & Fonarow, 2018). Data visualization methods such as graphs are effective in showing such trends.
References
Gupta, A., & Fonarow, G. C. (2018). The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program—learning from failure of a healthcare policy. European Journal of Heart Failure, 20(8), 1169-1174. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.1212.
Healy, K. J. (2019). Data visualization: A practical introduction. Princeton University Press.