Assignment Guidance: Practicum II Scenario In your continued role as the senior analyst to the Assistant

Assignment Guidance: Practicum II

Scenario

In your continued role as the senior analyst to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the Secretary wants you to do an analysis of factors affecting the total costs of United States Air Force (USAF) hospitals. The Secretary provides you the (attached) Excel file, and asks that you provide him with a 1-page executive memo detailing the factors that are most effecting total costs of USAF hospitals . The Secretary is not very statistically savvy, so please do not include too much pedantic jargon in your memo. What do you tell the Secretary?

Guidance:

The manner in which you format your memo is up to you. A simple memo with the date, subject, and lines with "to" and "from" will suffice here. Include your findings in the body of the memo.
In your memo, you should include how many hospitals you reviewed, what factors you considered in the model, and what factors contribute most to hospital costs.
In your memo, include an argument for the creditability and/or legitimacy of the model without getting too technical; however, do not make your memo seem like you are offering an opinion. Write your memo dispassionately, and let the data speak for itself; however, include any other pertinent information you think the "boss" wants to see.
I want to see all your SPSS output as a separate attachment . The SPSS output should include information containing any transformations, data reductions, histograms, or other manipulations you have done. You must write notes in the margins of the SPSS output, and/or circle (or highlight) any pertinent information in the SPSS output . Please include your SPSS output and notes as a PDF attachment to your MS Word memo . You WILL need access to a PDF scanner for this exercise. As a result, part of the requirement for this exercise is to locate a PDF scanner that your SPSS printouts (with handwritten notes) can be scanned and emailed.