Petra Porter

Education:

M.S. Public Health, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2008

Research Interest:

Petra’s current research involves how do organizational characteristics of hospitals influence the use of life sustaining technology and how do treatment decisions affect health care costs in return. In addressing these questions, the study contributes to our understanding of the factors that shape the use of advance directives, the relationship between hospital ownership, treatment constraints, and health care costs, the relationship between doctors’ decision-making discretion and hospital protocols, and the debate about religious doctrine as the basis for patient care. The study hypothesizes that religious hospitals’ ambiguous treatment protocol regarding DNR orders increases the likelihood of attending physician’s noncompliance with advance directives. She is currently working on research concerning the institutional and organizational influences on public policy.

When did you graduate?

May 2015

Current Research:

Petra’s research seeks to use data and quantitative analysis to investigate social problems with underlying normative aspects in the arenas of health and environment. Her current research focus is on the quality and cost of end-of-life care. She is, however, open to apply her research experience and analytical skills in other areas of the health and social sciences. Dissertation Title: To What Extent does DNR Compliance Mediate the Relationship between Hospital Affiliation and Total Medicare and Medicaid Cost per Discharge?” Teaching Interests:

• Research Methods
• Microeconomics
• The Social Welfare State
• Social Problems
• American Government
• Social and Policy Theory

Accomplishments:

• Summer Teaching Fellowship, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2011 – 2012
• 2012 Health Academy, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Award for Best Doctoral Student Paper “Do Organizational Characteristics of Medicare Providers Affect Do Not Resuscitate Compliance?”

Recent Publications:Conferences Attended:

• “Preserving Life at Any Expense: Estimating Per Capita Medicare Expenditure and its Variation across Hospital Sponsorship and DNR Compliance”
• Accepted to the 2013 Annual National Conference Midwest Political Science Association
• “Do Organizational Characteristics of Medicare Providers Affect Do Not Resuscitate Compliance?”
• Presented at the 2012 Annual National Conference Midwest Political Science Association
• “Whose Death Is It Anyway? Health Care Expenditures, Do Not Resuscitate and Religiosity”
• Presented at the 2011 Graduate Research Fair University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• “Exploring the Relationship between Religious Sensibilities, Mortality, and Medical Expenditures”
• Presented at the 2010 Annual Conference North Carolina Political Science Association

Biographical Information:

A native of Germany, Petra Gutermuth Porter finished her undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice at UNC Charlotte in 2004. She continued at UNC-Charlotte to earn a Master of Science in Public Health degree in 2008. She joined the PhD program in Public Policy in January 2009. Petra successfully defended her dissertation topic titled “To What Extent does DNR Compliance Mediate the Relationship between Hospital Affiliation and Total Medicare and Medicaid Cost per Discharge?” Curriculum Vita

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