Re: control charts in health care

[David Kerridge <dfkerridge@mac.com>]

Fatma Pakdil wrote:


>I have a question about quality characteristics for statistical quality
=
>control in health care and specifically for control charts. 

I suggest that you read Chapter 7 of W Edwards Deming's book "Out of the
Crisis". This includes, starting at page 199, an adaptation of the 14
points to health care. And on pages 203-204 it suggests some things that
could help you study performance in a hospital.

But I think this would be rather too advanced for most students. They
probably don't yet fully understand the point of control charts, which
is not to *measure* quality (because that is impossible) but to improve
it. That is a very difficult concept to grasp, for all of us, but makes
all the difference between tampering with a system and improving it.

This is a very short message, where a long one is needed, but please get
back to me if this is not clear.

David F Kerridge