The MHA 608 course has focused on the development of healthcare
administrators who are poised to deal with not only current issues in the
healthcare arena, but also to develop visionary leaders who can handle future
issues in healthcare administration. This final paper requires a comparative
analysis of multiple hospital or health systems in their applicability as it relates to
various issues encountered by the healthcare administrator.
o Access the following website: WhyNotTheBest.org. This site was created and is
maintained by The Commonwealth Fund, which is a private foundation focused
on development of high performance health systems. It is a free resource for
health care professionals interested in tracking performance on various measures
of health care quality. It is used by organizations to compare their performance
against peers and competitors on a range of benchmarks over various periods of
time. The link for the site is: (http://www.whynotthebest.org/)
o Select a minimum of 3 hospitals (from the left menu box – “Compare Hospitals”)
in your home state and at 3 hospitals in least 2-3 other states in order to make
comparisons. It is recommended that your choice of the other 2-3 states be states
that have similar characteristics (i.e. demographics or population) as your home
state. Your selections are not required to be neighboring states.
o Once the list appears based on your selected state (under the matching hospitals
menu), click on the arrow icon next to the hospital to add them to the box on the
right (“add to report”). Do not leave this page until all of your hospitals and
states have been selected. Your choices will not be saved. Look back to the left
menu box and select your next state and hospitals until all of your choices have
been selected.
o Once all selections have been made, click on “View Report.” You must click on
the site terms of agreement in order to proceed. You will also need to give your
report a name. Any name will suffice. Click on “View Report” again. You may
get a popup menu that asks again for the agreement to the terms of use. Please
read this information. It also illustrates how to cite your report. You will need this
citation information for the reference page of your report.
o Your report will be displayed. Click on the “change category” link in order to
produce reports on the following characteristics.
 Patient Experience
 Mortality Rates
 Readmission Rates
 Health Information Technology
o It is recommended that you print the chart reports from each category. If you
desire, you can create a free account to save your reports. However, if you do not
create the account before you do the report, you will lose your report. It may be
more feasible just to print out your reports.
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o If you select hospitals that do not have enough to measure the four required
characteristics, it is advised that you select other hospitals. The purpose of the
assignment is to compare facilities.
o After reviewing the reports from each state, students will develop a comparative
analysis paper. The paper will explore the four (4) required areas of comparison;
describe the findings, and present ideas for improving the data findings.
o Requirements: The body of the paper should be between a minimum of 8 pages
not to exceed 12 pages (3500-4000 words), typed and double-spaced in Times
Roman font using APA standard. The page length requirement does not include
the title page and reference pages.
Format for the paper:
 Title page
 Introduction – This section of the paper should describe the states selected and
rationale for their selection.
 Comparative Analysis – This discussion should give a narrative of the results
of the comparisons for each state based on the specified characteristics.
 Reflections – Discuss your personal and professional reflections on the
findings. (What do you think about the results? How might you explain any
differences?) This discussion should be supported by references from the
assigned readings and external sources.
 Conclusions – Discuss how the selected hospitals might improve their scores
on each of the characteristics. This discussion should be based on concepts
and principles learned from the MHA 608 course.
 Christian Worldview – This section of the paper should also address how your
Christian worldview perspective impacts or frames your ideas and discussions
related to the issues presented in the paper.
 Reference page – APA format. Resources for APA formatting are included on
the Graduate Online Student Center.