Data Extraction/Comparison

Week 1 – Discussion

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses.

By Day 1 of Week One, your instructor will assign you a State to examine for this discussion. The ability to extract healthcare data from online databases is important to identify trends that can lead to better patient care. The Agency for HealthCare Research and Quality (AHRQ) provides a web based tool for extracting data presented in the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report. In this discussion you will query the database to find data from your assigned state. Identify the state you were assigned in your discussion post subject line. Go to the AHRQ website mentioned in the required resources section for this week. Click on “State View” and select the state you were assigned. Click on the link that says “Review Underlying Data”. Give two examples of measures for each of the categories below: Achieved the benchmark or better Close to achieving the benchmark Far from achieving the benchmark Include the three benchmarks in your initial post. Investigate one of the measures you noted above that are in the “far from achieving the benchmark” category. Look at the data tables and graphs. What trends do you see over time? How does your state compare to the total group? Be specific and provide the comparison data for all of the measures you noted above in your discussion. For example, “Florida’s breast cancer death rate was 21.50 compared to 23.5 in all populations”. What conclusions can you draw from the data you presented?

Initial Post: Your initial post should be 250 to 300 words. In addition to the textbook, utilize a minimum of two scholarly sources to support your post. Cite and reference your sources in APA format as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Guided Response: Post a minimum of two follow-up responses to your peers by Day 7. Each peer response should be a minimum of five full sentences. Compare and contrast your initial post with your peer’s post. Share an additional perspective or present new information about the discussion topic. Your three required posts must be on three different days of the week.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your discussion.