Discussion

Share with the rest of the class where you live (state and county). Answer the following questions, given the resources provided below.

1. What is the population of your county?

2. What are some of the general population demographics of your county (e.g., age, sex, employment, race, religion)?

3. What are some of the general health demographics of your county (e.g., disability, fertility, health insurance)?

4. What would you conclude about the population’s health that you researched?

This is an opportunity for you to expand your knowledge on how to apply descriptive statistics to retrieve data from public sources.

Please respond in the first person, share personal experiences, and ask questions to further develop your understanding of these research methods.

You may find the following resources helpful as you prepare for your response:

U.S. Census Bureau – current census data including information broken down by state, city, and region.

CDC Data and Statistics page – current information on healthcare-related conditions. Demographics are also available.

ASSIGNMENT

Instructions:

In this Assignment, you will be assessing the quality of services provided by hospitals. Likewise, you will also assess how these hospitals can improve their organizational performance.

· Using the Medicare Hospital Compare website, research two hospitals varying in quality performance*

· One hospital should display a high level of quality

· One hospital should display a low level of quality

· Provide a general overview of each hospital (e.g., name, location, bed size, ownership, etc.)

· Discuss the quality performance differences between hospitals (e.g., survey results, deficiencies, complaints, services provided, value, etc.)

· Discuss how the first hospital is able to yield a high level of quality.

· Discuss opportunities for the second hospital to increase their level of quality.

· Synthesize how each hospital could potentially increase value to their existing services.

· Report your findings by using one (1) of the methods below:

· 3-4 page paper excluding front and back matter (APA standards apply).

· Internal organizational memorandum.

· Infographic

· PowerPoint presentation for a Board of Directors (10-12 slides; speaker notes as needed to support assertions).

· 7-10 minute public service announcement (using a free online voice recorder such as vocaroo.com)

· Video newscast (using a free online video recorder such as YouTube.com) (e.g., entertainment talk show, television commentary, interview-style, news reporting, etc.).

· The use of first-person is permitted for this Assignment (excluding option 1). APA formatting (e.g., title page, conclusion, font size, etc.) should not be used if you choose to complete the memorandum, infographic, PSA, or newscast.

· Although the use of APA formatting is not required for this Assignment, proper grammar, spelling, and an APA formatted reference list of sources are expected.