Statistical process control part 1: a primer for using statistical process control in health care process improvement

Abstract

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT is increasingly important for health care organisations both nation-wide and internationally. There is greater recognition of both the variances in patient care and the gaps between evidence-based research and current practice. At the same time, demand, not only for the quantity of services, but for higher quality services, continues to grow. Realising this, most major hospitals across Australia are initiating the redesign of hospital processes in order to maximise the timeliness and quality of patient care. But changing a process does not always result in an improvement.1,2 For this reason, a key component of any quality improvement effort is the robust measurement, analysis, and interpretation of appropriate clinical outcomes and processes, to ensure beneficial changes occur.