RE: control charts in health care

["Alan Meekings" <alan@landmarkconsulting.co.uk>]

Hello Fatma,

One angle you may wish to examine is the flow of patients through a system
of care (emergency care, elective surgery, mental health, etc).

For instance, we built what could be called an 'operational performance
dashboard' for musculo-skeletal conditions and orthopaedic care for the
National Health Service Information Authority in the UK last year.

In order to understand what to measure, we undertook a rigorous analysis of
referrals from primary care 'General Practitioners' to secondary care
'Consultants'. 

This we did by analysing 'referral letters' (i.e. before the patient is seen
by the consultant) and 'clinic letters' (i.e. the notes taken after the
patient is initially seen by the consultant). 

This demand analysis showed that over 50% of patients should NOT have
waited, in the first instance (which could be for up to 17 weeks), to see a
consultant orthopaedic surgeon. Alternatives, such as being prescribed a
course of physiotherapy, having predictable diagnostics undertaken BEFORE
seeing the consultant, etc, would have been more appropriate for over 50% of
patients. 

Our results are currently being written-up as an article for the British
Medical Journal.

Taking an outside-in, end-to-end, patient-centric perspective on what to
measure, then charting the key measures that define systemic performance,
should give you a rich canvas on which to paint.

Feel free to contact me direct, if you think I may be able to help you.

Regards as ever,
 
Alan
 
Email: alan@landmarkconsulting.co.uk
Mobile: 07785 258 741