Using Control Charts in a Healthcare Setting

Abstract

On October 10, 2014, Isabella Cvengros, a Healthcare Operations Improvement Consultant, found herself with a good problem. She had just completed a series of interviews with two Nashua, NH, hospitals: Farrell Memorial Hospital and Penner Mobley Health Services, and both had gone very well. She interviewed for the same job at both facilities—director of operations improvement—and leadership from both facilities indicated she was proceeding to the final round of interviews, which entailed meeting each hospital’s executive team.

As a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Cvengros was thrilled to hear both hospitals’ progressive views on continuous improvement. While she saw examples of many quality tools and analyses being performed at each hospital, she did not notice any control charts being used.

Although control charts are typically associated with manufacturing processes, Cvengros knew they could be applied to any industry’s processes, including hospitals. Because she had employed control charts with great success in several of her assignments, she incorporated this experience as part of her interview responses. Both hospitals were intrigued and asked if she could provide an example during her next round of interviews.

Cvengros agreed, but to make the analysis more meaningful, she asked each hospital to provide her with data so the example control chart analysis would be more meaningful and relevant to them. Since one of the key discussion points during her interviews at both facilities revolved around reducing the patient’s length of stay, Cvengros asked for data on their estimated date of discharge (EDD) by week from January through September 2014.

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