Management
What’s the Best Graphic Display for This Data?
As a learning team, review the three data tables and graphic displays provided.
Answer the prompts after each data table and graphic display.
Data Table and Graphic Display 1
| Month | Number of patient visits to the Emergency Department |
| January | 2849 |
| February | 2753 |
| March | 4652 |
| April | 3571 |
| May | 3126 |
| June | 3453 |
| July | 5012 |
| August | 2854 |
| September | 2948 |
| October | 3274 |
| November | 2562 |
| December | 2676 |
Write a 175- to 260-word response to the following prompts using the data table and graphic display above.
- Explain whether the data represented above is considered inpatient or outpatient data.
- Describe other types of statistical data that can be used in the identified setting (inpatient or outpatient).
ANSWER
Graphic Display data Discussion
Determining whether a patient’s medical status is inpatient or outpatient depends on the duration of stay in the hospital. Inpatient patients typically receive care over a considerable period of time as they undergo close monitoring. Common inpatient procedures include complex surgeries, delivering a baby and different rehabilitation processes. On the other hand, outpatient patients do not require constant monitoring and mostly do not suffer from severe illness. The duration for outpatients is usually under 24 hours in the hospital. With that said, the data presented is for outpatients. This is because of the high number of patients recorded per month. It is only logical to conclude that these were only minor incidences, hence the higher number of recorded patients. Patients suffering from severe illnesses are normally lower than these numbers. Also, there are not many facilities that can cater for such a high number of inpatients monthly.
Administrative enrollments and billing records can be used as an alternative statistical data collection for evaluating outpatient patients (Sarkies et al., 2015). High billing records would indicate that the patients have stayed for long in the hospital and received complex procedures and medications, hence indicate inpatients. For outpatients, the billing will be relatively lower for several instances, like paying for an Ex-ray, doctor consultation, stitches, colonoscopies, routine physical exams, among others.
References
Sarkies, M. N., Bowles, K. A., Skinner, E. H., Mitchell, D., Haas, R., Ho, M., … & Haines, T. P. (2015). Data collection methods in health services research: hospital length of stay and discharge destination. Applied clinical informatics, 6(1), 96.
