Quantitative Methods of Inquiry in Healthcare: Types and Applications

QUANTITATIVE METHODS OF INQUIRY
To describe the different quantitative methods of inquiry. Quantitative methods involve
observing, explaining, collecting and analyzing information. It majorly focused on numerical
information or data. The data is later analyzed using statistics. There are four types of
quantitative methods. The first one is the survey which uses interviews, questionnaire and
sampling polls to get the data. It can be used to compare several groups or one group. Most of
the people questions are sampled at random which ensures accuracy in the findings. The second
quantitative method is the correlational and it tests the relationships between two variables. It is
mostly conducted on a minimum of two groups (Klazema, 2014). The data is then compiled
which is later analyzed mathematically so as to draw conclusions about the relationship of the
two variables. The third method is the causal-comparative which looks to uncover a cause and
effect relationship. It is not conducted between two groups on each other. It majorly studies
statistical relationship between two variables as it identifies, specifies how the different groups
are affected by the same circumstance. It also involves comparison. The fourth method is the
experimental. It is majorly guided by hypothesis which can sometime be several. Once the
hypothesis statement is made, experiments are started to find out whether the statement made
was true or false (Patel, 2009).
The healthcare cost and utilization project (HCUP) includes the largest collection of longitudinal
hospital care data in the united states. The state inpatient databases (SID) which contain the
universe of inpatient discharge abstracts from participating states. Therefore, it is from these two
organizations which collect and analyze data as provided in the different tables.

To describe the mean, median and mode of discharge by sate in 2014 (Anastasopoulos,2013).
When using R-studio to code the data that is the number of discharge in 2014. We use R
programming to code for the mean of this data which is 585294.8 , median is 385584.5 and the
mode is “numeric” (Quick,2009).
To compare the number of discharges in 2010, 2012 and 2015 in all states. In 2010 there were
only three states which there SID and year were not available as compared to 2012 which had
four SID and year not available and in 2015 we only had one SID and year not available. The
number of discharges by state for 2010 were more than the number of discharges by state for
both 2012 and 2015, the number of discharges by state for 2012 were again more than the
number of discharges by state for 2015. In 2010 VT state had the least number of discharge
while CA state had the most number of discharge. In 2012 and 2015 still VT state had the least
number of discharge while in 2012 and 2015 FL state had the most number of discharge. If we
compare 2015 and 2010 we realized that the number of discharge in 2010 was higher than that of
2015 except only where SID for state and year were not available.
To compare the number of discharges in 2011. In northwestern states, Washington had the
largest number of discharge followed by Oregon. The rest of the states were not participating
states according to the terms and conditions of SID. In southwestern states, Oklahoma and Texas
were the unparticipating states whereas California which had the largest number of discharge
were among the participating states. In central states, North Dakota, Illinois, Lowa, Kansa were
among the unparticipating states while South Dakota, Missouri are the participating states with
Missouri having the highest number of discharges. In southeastern state, Georgia and Virginia