Revised 08/2025

HIM 220 - Health Statistics (3 CR.)

Course Description

Introduces the student to basic statistical principles and calculations as applied in the health care environment, procedures for collection and reporting vital statistics, and basic quality control basics. Lecture 3 hours per week.

General Course Purpose

This course discusses the subject of collecting, aggregating and reporting data in the health care environment. In Addition, students will learn the fundamentals of standard deviation, normal distribution and histograms.

Course Prerequisites/Corequisites

HIM program placed students only:

Prerequisites/corequisites are BIO 142, HIM 110, HIM 130, HIM 141, HIM 142 or permission of instructor. The course will be offered to any student who meets the prerequisites/co-requisites and is program placed in the Health Information Management (HIM) program.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to: 

  • Differentiate between data and information, and assess the validity, reliability, and sources of healthcare data used in statistical analysis.
  • Apply foundational mathematical concepts such as decimals, ratios, proportions, percentages, and averages to healthcare data.
  • Calculate and interpret key healthcare utilization statistics, including inpatient census, service days, admissions, and transfers.
  • Analyze bed occupancy and turnover rates and evaluate how changes in bed count affect utilization metrics.
  • Compute and interpret length of stay (LOS) statistics for various patient populations and relate LOS to healthcare resource management.
  • Calculate a range of mortality rates, including hospital, maternal, fetal, and case fatality rates, and distinguish between types of anesthesia and obstetrical deaths.
  • Identify autopsy-related terminology and calculate autopsy rates, including gross, net, and adjusted rates, using spreadsheet software.
  • Summarize and interpret morbidity, infection, complication, and readmission statistics, and distinguish between surgical operations and procedures.
  • Apply statistical methods to HIM department operations, including productivity, staffing, budgeting, and variance analysis.
  • Compute and interpret percentiles, measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode), and measures of variation (range, variance, standard deviation, correlation).
  • Classify data types (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio) and create appropriate tables and graphs to visually represent healthcare data.
  • Compare and contrast quantitative and qualitative research methods, and describe the research process, including ethical considerations and the role of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs).
  • Explain and apply inferential statistical concepts, including confidence intervals, standard error, null hypothesis, t-tests, and chi-square tests.
  • Differentiate between the five types of data analytics (descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, prescriptive, and cognitive) and explain how analytics inform healthcare decision-making.

Major Topics to Be Included

  • Foundations of healthcare data and statistics
  • Basic mathematical and statistical skills
  • Healthcare utilization statistics
  • Bed management and occupancy metrics
  • Length of stay (LOS) analysis
  • Mortality and anesthesia statistics
  • Autopsy statistics and reporting
  • Morbidity and surgical statistics
  • HIM department operations and budgeting
  • Descriptive statistics and data interpretation
  • Data types and visualization
  • Healthcare research and ethics
  • Inferential statistics and hypothesis testing
  • Data analytics in healthcare