In this chapter, we have taken a look at some prominent value-based programs that are shaping the US healthcare industry today. We have seen how these programs quantify provider performance through the use of measures. Additionally, we have downloaded the data for comparing dialysis facilities and hospitals and worked through some code examples in Python to see how to analyze this data.
One might argue that the analysis in this chapter could be accomplished by using a spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel rather than programming. In Chapter 7, Making Predictive Models in Healthcare, we will train predictive models on a healthcare dataset to predict discharge status in the ED. As you will see, this type of analysis almost certainly requires writing code.