Statistics in Healthcare
Statistics help researchers identify the pattern of diseases in groups of people, therefore identifying risk factors, controlling measures, and identifying areas requiring the most study. The branch of statistics dealing with health care is known as biostatistics. Biostatistics is useful in areas such as public health, epidemiology, clinical research, and forensic medicine. It helps in making conclusions in healthcare when it gets done correctly. Errors can, however, occur when researchers misuse statistical methods, this leads to wrong conclusions. Biostatistics should adopt a multidisciplinary approach throughout the entire statistical process to reduce errors. It is also essential for healthcare workers to acquire some biostatistics training to make correct interpretations of results.
The significance of statistics in healthcare
- Quality
Biostatistics can help to confirm whether a particular treatment is working and identify the cause of diseases; it, therefore, confirms the quality of the procedure. Medical organizations use statistics to measure their performance and to gauge whether they are succeeding or failing. Hospitals can then use this information from the statistical report to implement changes in their areas of low performance. This implementation leads to an improvement in the efficiency of the health organization. Biostatistics also help to describe a population. Health organizations benefit from knowing the characteristics of the consumer of their products and services. In this way, they get to understand the population’s preference in terms of the services that the health organizations offer. Such characteristics that interest health organizations include income, age, sex, race, and disabilities. Knowing the consumer characteristics helps to identify the goods and services required by the people and the resources needed to create the goods and services. Companies dealing with healthcare products can use statistics to determine the pricing of the product. Statistics help determine the demand for the product in the market, and from this data, the price gets determined (Islam, Rahman, & Halim, 2015).
- Health Promotion
The government and other agencies usually use statistics to measure the health of the population and determine their needs further. The government and other agencies also use statistics to compare services they give versus the needs of the people to decide whether they are meeting these needs. It is essential for the main stakeholders in healthcare, such as the government, companies dealing in medical technology, and pharmaceutical companies to become aware of the needs of the people so that they can design products and services in line with their needs. When the needs of the people get met, the acceptance of health care goods and services is likely to improve; this leads to a healthier population (Islam, Rahman, & Halim, 2015).
- Leadership
Statistics in medicine help in formulating health policies; biostatistics help identify concepts such as inequalities in health, implementation of policies, tendencies in epidemiology, and social determinants of health. The results obtained from such concepts help in the formulation and implementation of new health policies to ensure better health care systems (Gaffney, Hatcher, & Milligan, 2016).
- Safety
A clinical trial is an experiment where scientists make observations of various treatments under controlled conditions. During clinical trials, statistical methods get used to determine the response of the patients to the treatment. The investigator selects the subjects, mode of treatment, and the method of analysis of findings. The aim of conducting the exercise is to establish the safest and most efficient ways of administering treatment. Clinical trials also test the effectiveness and safety of novel therapies and vaccines (Gaffney, Hatcher, & Milligan, 2016).
How to Obtain Statistical Data in Cardiac Telemetry, how the statistical knowledge gets used in daily operations and decision making
Data from cardiac telemetry may be useful to a researcher. For a researcher to obtain accurate results, they can use observational study where a sample gets selected to goes through telemetry monitoring. The sample should consist of patients with abnormal heartbeats or pain in the chest. The researcher then takes a record of daily new admissions and discharges and the telemetry results. After the patient’s release, the researcher can carry out a phone survey to the caregiver who was responsible for the discharged patient to get more information about the patient’s telemetry results. The researcher then obtains further details of the patients from the medical records (Zweibel & Trelfa, 2012).
In cardiac telemetry, a registered cardiac nurse is responsible for the interpretation of diagnostic data of the heartbeat. Cardiac telemetry uses a mobile device that uses blue tooth; the device records the diagnostic data of the patient. In case of a problem in the heartbeat of the patient, the device sends the information to the telerythmics monitoring center where a qualified, registered cardiac nurse interprets it. After every ten minutes, the device collects data, compiles a report of the results, and stores it. In this way, the nurse can compare reports with abnormal heartbeats and those with regular heartbeats. The statistical knowledge from cardiac telemetry is useful in diagnosing arrhythmias, both symptomatic and asymptomatic. It also diagnoses syncope, palpitations, and pre-syncope. It detects atrial fibrillation, both symptomatic and asymptomatic, after cardiac ablation. Lastly, it helps to monitor the rhythm of a patient during titration of the drug (Zweibel & Trelfa, 2012).
Conclusion
Biostatistics has a lot of benefits in health care. It ensures patient safety, improves the quality of health care systems, influences the formation of policies, and improves the health of the population. Caregivers need to acquire statistical training to make the correct interpretation of statistical data. Qualified cardiac nurses are responsible for interpreting data from cardiac telemetry. A wrong analysis could lead to the loss of life of a patient. It is, therefore, important that health workers receive some training on statistical methods where relevant.
References
Gaffney, T., Hatcher, B., & Milligan, R. (2016). Enhancing Patient Safety: Factors Influencing Medical Error Recovery Amon Medical-Surgical Nurses. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 21(3). doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol21No03Man06
Islam, F., Rahman, A., & Halim, A. (2015). Perceptions of Healthcare Providers and Patients on Quality of Care in Maternal and Neonatal Health in Fourteen Government Healthcare Facilities. BMC Health Services Research. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-015-0918-9
Zweibel, S., & Trelfa, M. (2012). The Use of Mobile Cardiac Telemetry to Improve Diagnostic Accuracy and Enable More Efficient Patient Care. US Cardiology Journal, 9(1). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.15420/usc.2012.9.1.43