RHIT - Registered Health Information Technician Healthcare Statistics and Analytics Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In the month of June, a 150-bed hospital had a total of 3,600 inpatient service days. The hospital discharged 450 patients during the same period. What was the average length of stay (ALOS) for June?
- 8.0 days (Correct answer)
- 24.0 days
- 0.125 days
- 3.3 days
Correct answer: 8.0 days
The average length of stay (ALOS) is calculated by dividing the total inpatient service days (also known as discharge days) by the total number of discharges during a specific period. In this case, 3,600 days / 450 discharges = 8.0 days.
Question 2: A health information manager wants to create a visual presentation to show the trend of hospital-acquired infection rates over the past five years. Which of the following data display tools would be most effective for this purpose?
- Pie Chart
- Histogram
- Line Graph (Correct answer)
- Scatter Plot
Correct answer: Line Graph
A line graph is the best tool for displaying trends or changes in a variable over a period of time. A pie chart shows parts of a whole, a histogram shows frequency distribution, and a scatter plot shows the relationship between two different variables.
Question 3: A hospital has a licensed bed count of 250. For a particular 24-hour period, the inpatient census taken at midnight was 200. What was the inpatient bed occupancy rate for that day?
- 125%
- 80% (Correct answer)
- 50%
- 20%
Correct answer: 80%
The inpatient bed occupancy rate is calculated by dividing the number of occupied beds (the inpatient census) by the total number of available licensed beds, then multiplying by 100 to get a percentage. The calculation is (200 / 250) * 100 = 80%.
Question 4: A hospital had 50 patient deaths within a 30-day period. Of those, 5 were coroner's cases that were not brought back to the hospital for autopsy. The hospital pathology department performed autopsies on 18 of the remaining deaths. Which calculation represents the hospital's net autopsy rate?
- (18 / 50) * 100
- (5 / 50) * 100
- (18 / 55) * 100
- (18 / 45) * 100 (Correct answer)
Correct answer: (18 / 45) * 100
The net autopsy rate refines the gross rate by excluding deaths of patients whose bodies were not available for autopsy (e.g., coroner's cases). The denominator is the total number of inpatient deaths minus the unautopsied coroner's cases. The calculation is (18 autopsies / (50 total deaths - 5 coroner's cases)) * 100.
Question 5: When analyzing patient satisfaction survey data, an RHIT encounters a question where patients rate their overall experience on a scale of 'Poor,' 'Fair,' 'Good,' or 'Excellent.' What type of data does this represent?
- Nominal
- Ordinal (Correct answer)
- Interval
- Ratio
Correct answer: Ordinal
Ordinal data involves categories that have a natural, meaningful order or rank, but the intervals between the ranks are not necessarily equal. 'Poor' is less than 'Fair,' which is less than 'Good,' establishing a clear order. Nominal data has no order, while interval and ratio data have numerically equal intervals.
Question 6: A hospital analyst uses data from a sample of 100 patient charts to make a conclusion about the documentation compliance rate for the entire hospital population of 10,000 records. This is an example of which type of statistics?
- Registry statistics
- Descriptive statistics
- Vital statistics
- Inferential statistics (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Inferential statistics
Inferential statistics involves using data from a sample to make generalizations, predictions, or conclusions about a larger population. Descriptive statistics, in contrast, would only summarize the characteristics of the 100 charts that were reviewed without making broader claims.
RHIT - Registered Health Information Technician Healthcare Statistics and Analytics Questions and Answers
In the month of June, a 150-bed hospital had a total of 3,600 inpatient service days.
The hospital discharged 450 patients during the same period.
What was the average length of stay (ALOS) for June?