Application: Harm Events in Your Area
Patient harm events happen at an alarming rate, but resources are available to consumers to help them make informed decisions about the care they receive. Being an informed consumer of health care will not only help you protect yourself, but your family and friends, as well. In the following assignment, you review patient safety and quality of care performance measures at institutions in your own area. You analyze the data for similarities and differences, in order to become a better health care consumer.
To prepare for this Application Assignment:
Question
Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper on ethical considerations in communication research.
Include the following in your paper:
Write a research question or develop a hypothesis (one-tail or two-tail) for a research study within the field of communication research. Use one of the questions or hypotheses written for your Getting Started in Communication Research Week 1 assignment.
Identify ethical implications of your study that may occur in order to answer the research question or test the hypothesis. Respond to the following as you identify the ethical implications of your study:
Will participation be confidential or anonymous What would you prefer if you were a participant of this study Why
How might the wording of your questions asked by your study affect your research
Will your research require deception On what basis might you justify this deception
Might any research participants be harmed by your research study
Identify any research project in which you have been a participant. Did you experience any anxiety as a participant Why or why not
Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.
Review the Learning Resources for the last two weeks.
Research health care quality and safety at institutions in your area utilizing the following websites. If you do not live within the U.S., please choose a region of the country, and hospitals in that area. (Consult your professor if you are not in the U.S. and have trouble locating three hospitals.)
Medicare.gov: Hospital Compare
http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/
write a 2- to 3-page paper that addresses the following:
Choose three hospitals in your area for which data exists in both websites. Identify three measures of patient quality and safety from the websites.
Compare and contrast each hospital’s performance to the other hospitals within and between the two websites.
Provide possible explanations for any disparities and/or similarities in the records.
Analyze the most striking features of the statistics you reviewed.
Explain how you would use this information to make decisions about your own health care.