Final Assignment: Applied Research in Healthcare Administration

For this Assignment, you will utilize the knowledge you’ve gathered throughout this course and apply it to the utilization of secondary data as it would relate to your role if you were a hospital administrator. You will use the state that you live/work in and review the data related to hospitalizations for that state through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). Begin by familiarizing yourself with the data available on the website and noting what you will be doing for your Assignment by following the directions below: Part 1: Obtaining Top 10 Principal Diagnoses for Your State 1. Access the website at: https://hcupnet.ahrq.gov/#setup Note: You must accept the User Agreement prior to accessing the query for your analysis. 2. Click on “Create a New Analysis.” 3. Click on “Inpatient.” 4. Click on “Rank Order.” 5. Select “2014” under “Choose a year” and select “Diagnoses—Clinical Classification Software (CCS)” under “Choose how you want to classify diagnoses or procedures.” 6. Click on “Create Analysis.” 7. You will land on a page that provides statistics for total number of discharges based on the top 10 Principal Diagnosis Categories for the United States. You will want to select your state on the left-hand side column under “Geographic Setting.” a. Click on “State” and select your state by clicking on the “+” sign. 8. Then, click on “Submit Request” at the bottom of the left-hand side column to obtain results for your specific state. 9. You will land on a page that provides statistics on the top 10 Principal Diagnosis Categories and total number of discharges for your state. a. List the top 10 Principal Diagnosis Categories for your state. b. Then, select a Principal Diagnosis Category that you would like to examine for this Assignment, and make note of the diagnosis and code for use in Part 2. As a healthcare administrator, it is important to know what the top 10 principal diagnoses are within your healthcare facility, system, locale, and state. Now that you have chosen the diagnosis from the top 10 principal diagnoses that you are going to research, follow these steps to run reports for your state on that diagnosis. Part 2: Analysis of Selected Principal Diagnosis Category 1. Now that you have selected a Principal Diagnosis Category to examine, you will need to begin the query process by accessing the website a second time. 2. Access the website at: https://hcupnet.ahrq.gov/#setup Note: You must accept the User Agreement prior to accessing the query for your analysis. 3. Click on “Create a New Analysis.” 4. Click on “Inpatient.” 5. Click on “Descriptive Statistics.” 6. Select “2014” under “Choose a year.” 7. Click on “Yes” under “Do you want data on a specific diagnosis or procedure?” 8. Click on “Diagnoses—Clinical Classification Software (CCS)” under “Choose how you want to classify diagnoses of procedures.” 9. Type in the Principal Diagnosis Category you selected in Part 1. 10. Click on “Create Analysis.” 11. You will land on a page the presents the total of number of discharges for your selected Principal Diagnosis Category for the United States. You will want to select your state on the left-hand side column under “Geographic Setting.” a. Click on “State” and select your state by clicking on the “+” sign. 12. You will also want to select specific patient characteristics for this part of the analysis. One the left-hand side column, navigate to the label “Patient Characteristics” and click on the drop-down menu. a. Click on “Race/Ethnicity” by clicking on the “+” sign. b. Click on “Payer” by clicking on the “+” sign. 13. Then, click on “Submit Request” at the bottom of the left-hand side column to obtain results for your specific state and patient characteristics. 14. You will land on a page that presents the results of the total number of discharges by race/ethnicity, and payer for the Principal Diagnosis Category and state you selected. 15. Save you results by clicking on the “Excel” button on the top menu and save the Excel file for the year 2014. 16. Rerun this analysis for the previous 5 years of data by navigating to the left-hand side column and selecting the previous 5 years under “Years.” a. Click on the year you are interested in obtaining results for by clicking on the “+” sign. 17. Then, click on “Submit Request” at the bottom of the left-hand side column to obtain results for the additional years you are examining. 18. Save you results by clicking on the “Excel” button on the top menu and save the Excel file for previous 5 years. Review the data to determine a research question that you can answer based on the data you have gathered. The Assignment (7– 8 pages): For this Assignment, you will submit a 7- to 8 page paper that addresses the following: • The background of your top 10 principal diagnosis in your state based on the literature that supports the research question that you have developed • The research question you have developed based on the data you gathered from HCUP • The data that answers the research question • Additional literature that answers the research question • Implications of the data and literature for you as a healthcare administrator: What additional information would you want to know? What other questions should you be asking that would assist you in your role as a healthcare administrator? • Conclusion