Additional Existing Data Resources for DHA Students
Secondary data and resources can be found at the local, state, regional, federal, and international levels. Walden University maintains information via the Research Center that includes access and information to specific secondary data resources as well as providing a tutorial on Secondary Data Analysis.
Examples of major secondary data sources can be found below at state/national and international levels. In addition, individual health departments, other state health agencies, nonprofit organizations, registries, hospitals or other healthcare facilities may collect data that could be searched for and possibly used as a secondary data resource.
Use of existing data directly from healthcare organizations
The use of quantitative data from healthcare organizations is acceptable considering the following:
- Written consent from the organization must be obtained to use their data (Some hospitals may not grant permission)
- Data must be validated and come from an established department, such as Quality, Finance, Logistics, Operations (No primary data collection is to be conducted by the student).
- Ensure data is relevant to health administration, operations, management and align with at least one of the ACHE professional domains.
Examples of data include:
- HR staffing levels/productivity/operational costs
- Performance indicators typically found on a management dashboard ssuch as cost per case, readmissions, patient satisfaction, staff satisfaction, infection rates, complication rates, length of stay.
- Impact of a policy, regulation, practice on quality of care, operational costs, productivity.
- Insurance reimbursements and coding
- Medical Informatics/patient documentation/Electronic Medical Records impact on various variables such as throughput.
- Length of stay
- Infection control programs
- Logistics and Materials Management (Supply Chain Management) products costs vs operational efficiency
- Healthcare Technology Management programs and relationship with improving patient outcomes.
Existing Data Resources for Healthcare
- American Hospital AssociationThe AHA Annual survey data obtained from the AHA website can be accessed from: https://www.ahadataviewer.com/quickreport/?aliId=61648445.
- The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS)The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. This data offers mortality rates, listing septicemia as #11 in 2014 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). This data would offer historic data regarding wait times in emergency and mortality rates due to sepsis.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS): Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC)Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS): Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC) is a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) contractor that provides free assistance to researchers interested in the CMSdata.
- Compedium of Federal Data Sources to Support Health Workforce Analysis: Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)This compendium provides a summary of 38 federal data sources that, while not established specifically to collect or present health workforce data, can be used to support health workforce analysis.
- International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes ResearchLists 385 Database sources, including 185 from the U.S.
- LeapFrogThe Hospital Safety Grade: Data for hospital safety grades
- Medical Group Management AssociationAccess “Industry Data” tab)
- National Institute of Health: SEERNational Institute of Health: SEER is part of the Surveillance Research Program (SRP) in the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. The SEER database is available to the public, via the NIH website for the National Cancer Institute.
- United NationsProvides free data access to UN statistical databases through a single entry point. Users can search and download a variety of statistical resources of the UN system.