This text was written specifically for health information management students enrolled in
baccalaureate degree programs and for practicing health information management professionals. This text focuses on applying statistical techniques to problems in health care. Because the focus here is on application, it is assumed that the student has had a previous
course in probability theory and the normal distribution. This text is set up so that students
can either use the Jones and Bartlett Publishers website that supports this book or input the
data for each problem using their own statistical software. It is not the intent of this book to
teach the student how to use SPSS, Microsoft Excel, or any other type of statistical package
or electronic spreadsheet. These programs are included in this text as examples only; I am
not endorsing any of these products. My goal in writing this book was to introduce students
and professionals to how statistical techniques can be used to describe and make inferences
from health care data. There are many statistical books available on the market, but none is
directed specifically to the health information management profession. Also, because there
are other texts that introduce the student to traditional hospital statistics such as average
length of stay and total inpatient service days, they are not covered in this text.