HCS 235T Wk 5 Discussion – Health Care Data and Analytics

There are many comparison databases available online that allow you to compare physicians, long-term care providers, and insurance companies. These databases allow you to gain experience and insight into health care data and analytics. Additionally, you’ll learn more about how such information is increasingly being used by health insurance companies, private and government payers, providers, and patients to make choices about which providers are selected and paid based on quality, satisfaction, and cost data.

Instructions:

For this discussion, begin by completing the following tasks:

1. Access the Care Compare tool on the Medicare.gov website.

2. Select the hospital provider feature and choose 3 hospitals that you are interested in comparing. For example, you might choose to compare your local hospitals or an academic medical center, a rural hospital, and sole community provider to see how they compare. Or, you could choose hospitals in different parts of the country for a regional comparison.

3. Follow the website’s instructions to compare your 3 chosen hospitals and review the results.

4. Expand the results categories, such as patient survey rating, timely & effective care, and complications & deaths, and to review the data for each hospital.

Due Thursday:

Post a substantive response that addresses each of the following components (minimum 175 words):

• What are the names and locations of the 3hospitals you selected and why did you choose them? Explain your answer.

• What observations do you have about the patient experience survey data and patient ratings for the hospitals you selected?

• Would you decide to use a hospital based on this data? Why or why not? What other information might you want to know? What difficulty would the average patient have in using this data?

Note: Cite any outside resources used to answer these questions and format your citations according to APA guidelines.

Due Monday:

Post a minimum of two replies to your classmates or instructor. Be constructive and professional.