This document discusses using government documents and free online sources to teach health care management courses. It provides examples of LibGuides created for undergraduate and graduate courses that direct students to data sources for assignments on topics like market analysis, health indicators, and demographic statistics. Examples of data sources highlighted include the GeorgiaInfo almanac, Medicare tools, and the Online Analytical Statistical Information System (OASIS) for public health data in Georgia. The document also discusses exercises for teaching students to critically evaluate and find relevant information in government documents.

1. Politically Correct:
Teaching Effectively with Government Documents and
Other Free Sources
Slides and examples can be found at:
http://tinyurl.com/comopoliticallycorrect

2. LibGuides Developed for Courses in
Health Care Management
Undergraduate health care management course- Targeted for students
assigned a market analysis assignment.
Graduate health care management course- Targeted for group/client project
- an original proposal in some area of research epidemiology.
LIbGuide boxes correspond to marketing assignment categories:
● Geographic identifiers for Georgia- (GeorgiaInfo) almanac
● Business and Commerce Sources-(Industry and Local Business Statistics Snapshot)
● Hospital and Local Community Services- (Find a Hospital Medicare Tool)
● Population Resources- HUD Data Sets
● Public health and public policy data for Georgia (OASIS) (Online Analytical Statistical
Information System)

3. Finding Data for Health in Georgia (OASIS)
Online Analytical Statistical Information System
Typical student request is 5 year span of data:
Sample here shows:
Morbidity:
Measure: Ambulatory Care Sensitive Condition
(ACSC)
Age: 75+
Time: 2007-2011
Geography: All Georgia vs. DeKalb, Fulton,
Gwinnett
Condition: Chronic Conditions---
Chronic ObstructivePulmonary Disease
Race: All
Payor: Medicaid
Sex: All

4. Close Up of the Created COPD Dataset

5. LibGuides with a Variety of Statistical Resources
Health Data Tools and Statistics- HealthMap
Statistical Resources for Assignments!
● Business, Employment, Economics- health related business development, psychology
& human services
● Crime and Justice- criminal justice/legal studies classes
● Demographics-for all research areas
● Education-across the social sciences
● Health Data and Statistics-nursing, and all areas of health including dental hygiene,
management, and fitness

6. Mentioned Resources: Statistical Collection
Guidelines, Tools, and LibGuides
■ Clayton State University LibGuides http://clayton.libguides.com/
Includes LibGuides with resources relating to health, statistics, crime, demographics, education, business etc.
■ Hartsell-Gundy, J. (2014). Finding government statistics on the Internet: A Compendium of major sources. College &
Research Libraries News, 75(3), 148-152. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.clayton.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eft&AN=94922492&site
=eds-live&scope=site
This is a nice summary of how and what information is collected by the U.S. Federal Government.
■ Office of Management and Budget, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Statistical Programs and
Standards.(Retrieved September 24, 2014) http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg_statpolicy
Discusses collection standards, statistical confidentiality, guidance on agency collection, and release dates for
information such as federal economic indicators.
■ Rowan, Cheryl. (July 24 2013). Health Statistics on the Web: It's as Easy as…1, 2, 3! Retrieved from
http://nnlm.gov/training/healthstatistics/
Presentation and training materials by C.Rowan, Consumer Health Coordinator, NN/LM South Central Region.

7. Perspectives 2699 Critical Thinking
Common Reader
Clarkston, Georgia:
● 2010: 7,554 population
13.6% White
58.4% African-American
21.6% Asian
● 2006-2010 ACS 5-year estimates:
39.5% Foreign-born
● 2000: 7,231 population
19.4% White
55.7% African-American
12.6% Asian
● 2000 sample data: 33.7% Foreign-born

8. Census Information Assignment
1. Describe some of the changes that have taken place in Clarkston, Georgia, according to the
author of Outcasts United and our own Census research.
2. Use the Census Bureau to find data about your home town or county:
www.census.gov
What are the estimated percentage according to the decennial census:
● 2010: race, Hispanic heritage, foreign born
● 2000: race, Hispanic heritage, foreign born (see nativity)
3. What changes do you see in the population data for your town or county from 2000 to 2010?
4. From your own knowledge and observations of others in your community, what do you think
helps explain those changes?

9. Perspectives 2750 Leadership
School Information Assignment
● Find out information about a public school district where you think you
might like to teach. Go to the National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES) at http://nces.ed.gov/ and select School Search, then Public
School Districts.
● Using this data, answer the following questions about this school district:
1. What is the student/teacher ratio for schools in this district?
2. How many FTE teachers are there?
3. How many of those FTE teachers are in Pre-K and Kindergarten
classes?
4. How much does this district spend per student, on average?
5. Who provides the largest amount of funding: federal, state, or local?

11. Selected Free Online Sources for Journalists
http://libguides.valdosta.edu/freegovinfo

12. In-class exercise
Why use government documents? Do you trust them?
(evaluation criteria, controversies, conspiracies, politics, etc)
What were their expectations…
what would the government write about?
what sort of things would they find released by the government?
which governments count? state, US, international?
...Can they think of anything that the government wouldn’t cover?
Activity: in pairs or groups, come up with an off-the-wall topic. Mix them up and
challenge another group to find government documents relevant to that topic

13. Online exercise

14. Info literacy concepts
Develop keywords.
Explore a variety of government document repositories.
Find context, relevant information, and develop holistic responses, not just
answers to trivia questions [research vs trivia]
Evaluation - What agency/person wrote this? What is their agenda? What is
their stated reason for being? Any controversies with them?
Citation creation

15. Questions?
Jean Cook, University of West Georgia, jcook@westga.edu
Lori Gwinett, Georgia Southern University, lgwinett@georgiasouthern.edu
Emily Rogers, Valdosta State University, ecrogers@valdosta.edu
Joan Taylor, Clayton State University, joantaylor@clayton.edu
Slides and examples can be found at:
http://tinyurl.com/comopoliticallycorrect