Biomaterial Database

Plotting basic control charts: tutorial notes for healthcare practitioners. 2008

M A Mohammed, and P Worthington, and W H Woodall

Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. m.a.mohammed@bham.ac.uk

There is considerable interest in the use of statistical process control (SPC) in healthcare. Although SPC is part of an overall philosophy of continual improvement, the implementation of SPC usually requires the production of control charts. However, as SPC is relatively new to healthcare practitioners and is not routinely featured in medical statistics texts/courses, there is a need to explain the issues involved in the selection and construction of control charts in practice. Following a brief overview of SPC in healthcare and preliminary issues, we use a tutorial-based approach to illustrate the selection and construction of four commonly used control charts (xmr-chart, p-chart, u-chart, c-chart) using examples from healthcare. For each control chart, the raw data, the relevant formulae and their use and interpretation of the final SPC chart are provided together with a notes section highlighting important issues for the SPC practitioner. Some more advanced topics are also mentioned with suggestions for further reading.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008499	Medical Records	Recording of pertinent information concerning patient's illness or illnesses.	Health Diaries,Medical Transcription,Records, Medical,Transcription, Medical,Diaries, Health,Diary, Health,Health Diary,Medical Record,Medical Transcriptions,Record, Medical,Transcriptions, Medical
D011786	Quality Control	A system for verifying and maintaining a desired level of quality in a product or process by careful planning, use of proper equipment, continued inspection, and corrective action as required. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)	Control, Quality,Controls, Quality,Quality Controls
D003627	Data Interpretation, Statistical	Application of statistical procedures to analyze specific observed or assumed facts from a particular study.	Data Analysis, Statistical,Data Interpretations, Statistical,Interpretation, Statistical Data,Statistical Data Analysis,Statistical Data Interpretation,Analyses, Statistical Data,Analysis, Statistical Data,Data Analyses, Statistical,Interpretations, Statistical Data,Statistical Data Analyses,Statistical Data Interpretations
D005568	Forms and Records Control	A management function in which standards and guidelines are developed for the development, maintenance, and handling of forms and records.	Records Control,Forms Control,Records Management,Controls, Records,Management, Records,Records Controls
D006282	Health Personnel	Men and women working in the provision of health services, whether as individual practitioners or employees of health institutions and programs, whether or not professionally trained, and whether or not subject to public regulation. (From A Discursive Dictionary of Health Care, 1976)	Health Care Professionals,Health Care Providers,Healthcare Providers,Healthcare Workers,Health Care Professional,Health Care Provider,Healthcare Provider,Healthcare Worker,Personnel, Health,Professional, Health Care,Provider, Health Care,Provider, Healthcare
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D014481	United States	A country in NORTH AMERICA between CANADA and MEXICO.
D015233	Models, Statistical	Statistical formulations or analyses which, when applied to data and found to fit the data, are then used to verify the assumptions and parameters used in the analysis. Examples of statistical models are the linear model, binomial model, polynomial model, two-parameter model, etc.	Probabilistic Models,Statistical Models,Two-Parameter Models,Model, Statistical,Models, Binomial,Models, Polynomial,Statistical Model,Binomial Model,Binomial Models,Model, Binomial,Model, Polynomial,Model, Probabilistic,Model, Two-Parameter,Models, Probabilistic,Models, Two-Parameter,Polynomial Model,Polynomial Models,Probabilistic Model,Two Parameter Models,Two-Parameter Model
D017064	Process Assessment, Health Care	An evaluation procedure that focuses on how care is delivered, based on the premise that there are standards of performance for activities undertaken in delivering patient care, in which the specific actions taken, events occurring, and human interactions are compared with accepted standards.	Process Assessment (Health Care),Assessment, Process,Process Measures,Assessment, Process (Health Care),Assessments, Process,Assessments, Process (Health Care),Measure, Process,Measures, Process,Process Assessment,Process Assessments,Process Assessments (Health Care),Process Measure