Big Data Case

1. Suppose administrators in a large hospital organization want to understand and get a handle on the hospital industry. Using the AHA database, construct histograms for Number of Beds, Number of Admissions, Census, Total Expense, and Personnel. Determine the mean and the standard deviation for each. Are any of the distributions presented in this chapter seem to generally fit any of these variables? What might the mean and standard deviation tell you about each variable?

2. According to American Hospital Association data, about 30% of all hospitals in the United States are rural community hospitals. If a random sample of 80 U.S. hospitals was drawn, what is the probability that fewer than 20 would be rural community hospitals? If a random sample of 140 U.S. hospitals was drawn, what is the probability that more than 50 would be rural community hospitals? (Hint: This is a cumulative binomial problem with a large n. Use the normal distribution as an approximation to solve and compare your answer to what excel generates using the BINOM.DIST function.)