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Capella University *

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5008

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Statistics

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Feb 20, 2024

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Discussion 1 Statistics is the set of knowledge and skills used to organize, summarize, and analyze data (Lind et al, 2022). Businesses utilize statistics to ensure they are profitable and performing at their best. It is used for more than just profits and companies such as hospitals may utilize statistics to ensure patient safety. In my role as an emergency room nurse, performance and profits mean less to me than my bosses. However, utilizing statistics to ensure patients get the best care is important to me. When a patient walks into the hospital and is having chest pain, we have 6 minutes to get an EKG, if that same patient is then having a STEMI or a heart attack, we have 90 minutes to get the patient to the Cath lab and have a stent placed. These measurements are then turned into percentages and our statistics are tracked by federal organizations, such as The Joint Commission. This ensures that hospitals across the country practice patient safety and are giving adequate care. For higher ups in health care systems, statistics such as LWOBs which is when patient check into the hospital but leave before seeing a provider usually due to wait times, are important. It is the goal of most hospital executives to make money, LWOBs are essentially money walking out the door. Since if you are not seen by a provider the hospital cannot charge insurance companies any money. So, we are tasked with lessening LWOBs to less than 1%. This measurement can be tracked throughout the year and across other hospitals within our system to figure out the best way to reduce LWOBs. Managers can then reallocate resources and make changes to lower our LWOBs. Utilizing numbers on my resume was challenging for me since nursing truly is a team effort, especially in the ER. Often patients see multiple nurses during their time in the ER and depending on my position in the ER, I can care for anywhere from 10 patients to 100. We do not utilize patient satisfaction scores for nurses and as stated above, performance measures do not necessarily mean anything since 4-5 nurses may assist with a single patient. If any of my classmates have any ideas or examples, I could utilize for myself on a resume, I would like to hear them. Resources Lind, D. A., Marchal, W. G., & Wathen, S. A. (2022). Basic statistics in business and economics (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Discussion 2 Our book discusses the many ways to show qualitative and quantitative data. Graphs are utilized with qualitative data, that is nonnumerical data. Tables are best used with quantitative data or numerical data. Both tables and graphs can help to analyze data and portray a clearer picture of relevant data. Pfizer has recently become a household name, they are a large pharmaceutical company that creates medications, vaccines, and medical devices. In Pfizer’s 2021 Financial Performance Report, they utilize a table to show their profits. The table includes revenue, income, reported diluted EPS, adjusted income, adjusted diluted EPS, net cash provided, and cash dividends paid. The table shows data from 2021, 2020, and 2019 and calculates the percent change in each category between the three years. In the same financial report, a pie chart shows which products were the most lucrative. Pfizer has a wide range of products and so the chart only shows the top 10 performing medications and vaccines. Resources Lind, D. A., Marchal, W. G., & Wathen, S. A. (2022). Basic statistics in business and economics (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill. Pfizer's year in Review . Pfizer's year in review | Pfizer 2021 Annual Report Discussion 3 Mean, mode and median are all terms that we may remember from grade school, and reading this chapter definitely brought me back to my elementary school days. The reason we learned those terms so early on is because statistics are important to understand in life and in any industry. In healthcare we use central tendencies in bloodwork. First, every lab has an average range, these ranges differ from hospital to hospital but only by small amounts. This gives a baseline of what a person’s “normal” should be. However, not everyone has the same normal. When a patient's bloodwork shows abnormal limits, the first thing we do is look back at old bloodwork and find what the specific patient's normal limit is. This allows the team to see if the lab is truly abnormal or if the patient is on track with their specific normal.

Another way that central tendencies are used in hospitals is with throughput times or how long a patient stays in the hospital. Finding the median from day to day can give supervisors the ability to judge how many beds may be opening within the next 24 hours, this can give them an idea if resources need to be reallocated. The mean can easily be misinterpreted if there are numbers that are large or small that are factored into the equation. The median is not as affected by high or low numbers however, it also can be an inaccurate representation if the dispersion is not accounted for. The mode is simply the data point that occurs the most commonly and can be helpful in sales when finding which product may have sold the most units. Central tendency are an important part of life and business, they are the most basic form of statistics and can give a base understanding of how to analyze data. Resources Lind, D. A., Marchal, W. G., & Wathen, S. A. (2022). Basic statistics in business and economics (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill. Discussion 4 When given a data set that you are unfamiliar with, the best route is to distinguish the variables first. Figuring out what the data is, how much data there is, and then the best way to display the information so that one can analyze it. Depending on the data, different ways of viewing the data can assist in understanding it. Information that has multiple of the same values may be easier viewed in a dot plot. A box plot can be helpful with large sets of data. To make a box plot, one would find “ the minimum value, Q 1 (the first quartile), the median, Q 3 (the third quartile), and the maximum value” (Lind et al, 2022). Once the data is made into a chart or graph, analysis of the table can help one understand what they are looking at. Different means of analyzing information include skewness and correlation coefficient. A graph can be described with 4 shapes, symmetric, positively skewed, negatively skewed or bimodal (Lind et al, 2022). The skewness can be useful in better understanding the relationship between the mean and median of the data. Correlation coefficient is a statistic that, “measure the direction and strength of the relationship between two variables” (Lind et al, 2022). Using the above steps can help breakdown data and help one to understand and analyze it. Portraying data sets in tables, charts, or graphs can help our brain dissect information. Resources

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Lind, D. A., Marchal, W. G., & Wathen, S. A. (2022). Basic statistics in business and economics (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill. Discussion 5 A histogram is used to show the frequency of quantitative data. The classes are on the x axis and frequencies on the y. The height of the bars shows the class frequencies. Histograms are beneficial when trying to identify a pattern within data. A scatter plot is a correlation chart and is beneficial when trying to visualize the relationship between two variables. So histograms are useful with one particular data set, while scatter plots utilize two variables. A business example of when a histogram may be better to use in the healthcare industry is the volume of patients seen in a day over a year. This can help with ensuring we are staffed appropriately. A scatter plot may be used when determining the relationship between nursing burnout perception and the wages of nurses. This may be able to show if there is a correlation between how much nurses are compensated and their job satisfaction scores. Resources Lind, D. A., Marchal, W. G., & Wathen, S. A. (2022). Basic statistics in business and economics (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill. Discussion 6 The company I choose to use is Pfizer, which is a pharmaceutical company that creates drugs, vaccines, and medical devices. The company began in 1849 by two cousins (Pfizer). It rose in success by creating positive political relationships and capitalizing on the needs of the public. Their mission statement is, “We’re in relentless pursuit of breakthroughs the change patients’ lives” (Pfizer). The creation of the graphs for the lowest and highest stock prices in a year first started with highlighting the relevant data, that is the column of dates and the high/low stock prices. Then clicking the heading “insert” and going over to charts, click on the icon that resembles a scatter graph. I then used the chart format tab to label the x and y axis and change the title. I also opted to shrink the range on the y axis. This allowed for an easier view of the graph. I then added a trendline for an easier way to analyze the data. The process for creating the histograms for the adjusted closing prices and the volume began with first finding the maximum and minimum for the adjusted prices. This made the

process of defining bins a simpler task. I then labeled the x axis appropriately and gave the graph a title. Resources Company Timeline: a Legacy of Innovation . Pfizer. (n.d.). https://www.pfizer.com/about/history Pfizer's year in Review . Pfizer's year in review | Pfizer 2021 Annual Report. (n.d.). Discussion 7 When analyzing data, we sample data rather than use all the data for a number of reason, the simplest of reasons is that sample results often give adequate results (Lind et al, 2022). However, there are limitations to sampling data. For stocks, a year of good investments or mergers may skew the average higher even if the year prior they had a record low year. For Pfizer, their stock in the last 2 years has risen significantly due to the pandemic, so if you look at the past year their average stock prices appear higher than if you look at the past 5 years. For stocks, examining a 5-to-10-year range will give you a better idea of trends. Examining old data and finding trends is never 100%, the stock market can crash or a company can go under at any point. So predicitions within the stock market are simply educated guesses. The confidence interval shows how likely the population parameter is to occur within the specified range (Lind et al, 2022). In layman terms, the confidence interval shows how accurate the sample data may be. This can be helpful when deciding which companies to invest in. Resources Lind, D. A., Marchal, W. G., & Wathen, S. A. (2022). Basic statistics in business and economics (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill. Discussion 8 The last two years have been unprecedented for Pfizer stock. However, they capitalized heavily on COVID-19 and as the number of those infected falls so does the sales of Pfizer’s two largest money makers, the vaccine and Paxlovid, the oral treatment. From my own analysis over the past five years, it appears Pfizer’s stock is dropping in price. They hit their highest prices in the last two years but were unable to maintain their success. Pfizer expects their sales to drop 31%

this year (Gatlin, 2023). Pfizer is attempting to capitalize on their high value; however, it seems they may fall short. Most analysts would not recommend buying Pfizer currently and say most should have already sold it off. One report showed a heavy buying marketing, where the number of stocks bought compared to the number sold was around 5:1. This may indicate the insiders feel there is a future upside to Pfizer. However, there have not been very many recent news releases from Pfizer that signal any new major profits. So, based on my analysis and the reports of other analysts, Pfizer stocks should be sold at this time. Unless holders plan to hold onto the stock for a long period of time. Gatlin, A. (2023, February 23). Is Pfizer stock a buy or a sell after pharma giant confirms Covid downfall? Investor's Business Daily. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://www.investors.com/news/technology/pfizer-stock-buy-now/ StockInvest.us. (n.d.). Pfizer stock price forecast. should you buy pfe? StockInvest.us. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://stockinvest.us/stock/PFE

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