{"id":5,"date":"2009-01-23T11:43:27","date_gmt":"2009-01-23T17:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/graphicsociology\/?p=5"},"modified":"2009-01-23T11:43:27","modified_gmt":"2009-01-23T17:43:27","slug":"hospital-pricing-graph-vs-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/graphicsociology\/2009\/01\/23\/hospital-pricing-graph-vs-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospital Pricing – Graph vs Table"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<a<\/a>
New Jersey Commission on Rationalizing Health Care Resources<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Hospital<\/a>
Hospital Pricing Graph - SF Bay Area originally published in Health Affairs by Uwe Reinhardt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What Works<\/h3>\n

This comparison is a fairly straightforward examination of the relative merits of tables vs. charts.\u00a0 Both of these images are trying to help explain the tricky business of health care pricing.\u00a0 The bar graph comes from an article in Health Affairs by Uwe Reinhardt that starts by taking a look at the cost of a single procedure across hospitals within a small sample of hospitals in the state of California.\u00a0 The table does the same sort of thing but it was written by the New Jersey Commission on Rationalizing Health Care Resources so it looks at hospitals in New Jersey.\u00a0 It also looks across a number of treatments, not just one.<\/p>\n

Each of these presentation styles has its merits.\u00a0 The graph is an instantly legible message:\u00a0 the cost of a chest X-ray varies a lot from one hospital to the next.\u00a0 The table doesn\u2019t have the same instant legibility but it provides much more detail across a range of treatments, demonstrating that the pattern of discrepant charges is not restricted to a single treatment.\u00a0 Further, the table demonstrates a pattern \u2013 the relative cost of hospital treatments is fairly stable.\u00a0 If a hospital charges at the low end for one treatment, it probably charges at the low end for all treatments.<\/p>\n

What Needs Work<\/h3>\n

The bar graph does a good job of providing instant legibility but it doesn\u2019t give much detail.\u00a0 It works in the introduction of the paper to orient the reader but would not be nearly as useful in the results section because it shows only one treatment.<\/p>\n

The table provides a lot of detail, but unless someone is already deeply interested in the problem of health care costs, they may not take the time to read it. No patterns are immediately obvious \u2013 it\u2019s just a boxy sea of numbers. The presentation of the table as a graphic does little to help the eye.\u00a0 At least the columns are arranged from lowest payment to the greatest payment.\u00a0 They might have been made more visually legible if the font increased or the boxes got progressively darker as payment values increased down the columns.<\/p>\n

Relevant Links<\/h3>\n

Chaos Behind a Veil of Secrecy<\/a> in Health Affairs by Uwe E. Reinhardt<\/p>\n

“How Do Hospitals Get Paid – A Primer<\/a>” on Nytimes.com Economix blog\u00a0 by Uwe E. Reinhardt<\/p>\n

New Jersey Commission on Rationalizing Health Care Resources, Final Report 2008<\/a> by the State of New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Works This comparison is a fairly straightforward examination of the relative merits of tables vs. charts.\u00a0 Both of these images are trying to help explain the tricky business of health care pricing.\u00a0 The bar graph comes from an article in Health Affairs by Uwe Reinhardt that starts by taking a look at the cost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[991],"tags":[992,986,988,989,987],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-graphic-comparison","tag-california","tag-graphs","tag-health-care","tag-new-jersey","tag-tables"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/graphicsociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/graphicsociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/graphicsociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/graphicsociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/graphicsociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/graphicsociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/graphicsociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/graphicsociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/graphicsociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/graphicsociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}