By David M. Williams, PhD Harvardx course Practical Improvement Science in Health Care with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. So as we’re getting enough data, we have the ability to start using more sophisticated tools. And when we get 12 data points in a run chart, we can begin to use four rules to help us […]
Creating a Run Chart in Microsoft Excel
in Health Care, Measurement, Tools & Methods, Variation, VideosBy David M. Williams, PhD Harvardx course Practical Improvement Science in Health Care with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Now you can build a run chart by hand, and I actually strongly encourage that, because it’s really useful to sit down and have that relationship with putting your own data in and knowing where the changes […]
The Elements of a Run Chart
in Health Care, Measurement, Tools & Methods, Variation, VideosBy David M. Williams, PhD Harvardx course Practical Improvement Science in Health Care with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. A run chart includes several elements. There’s a y-axis, that’s the one that goes up and down on the left hand side, and this shows what you’re actually measuring. This is what your data is about. Along […]
An Example of Using Data
in Measurement, Public Safety, VideosBy David M. Williams, PhD Harvardx course Practical Improvement Science in Health Care with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Here’s an example from an ambulance service. By contract, the service has to achieve a response time performance goal of 90%. So the board report shows the percentages on time each month. As long as the goal […]
Tracking Data Over Time
in Health Care, Measurement, VideosBy David M. Williams, PhD Harvardx course Practical Improvement Science in Health Care with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. So we talked about data and collecting data, but how do we now convert data into something that we can visually see and enables us to build knowledge and learn. One of the simplest tools is to […]
Harnessing the Power of Data
in Health Care, Measurement, VideosBy David M. Williams, PhD Harvardx course Practical Improvement Science in Health Care with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. So very traditionally in almost every setting, whether it’s health care or education or business, people look at data all the time. But they don’t necessarily look at data in a way that’s helpful for understanding what’s […]
How to Use Data for Improvement
in Measurement, VideosBy David M. Williams, PhD Harvardx course Practical Improvement Science in Health Care with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. So, what is data? So what is data? Simply put, it’s information. It comes in many, many forms. It could be measurements, like measuring your body weight or measuring the size or the distance of something. It […]
Planning for Data Collection
in Measurement, VideosBy David M. Williams, PhD Harvardx course Practical Improvement Science in Health Care with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. So when you’re thinking about data, ask yourself, how do I get that data, and then how can I get just enough to learn. You also need to be thoughtful and intentional about the plan you develop […]
Scatter Plots
in Health Care, Tools & Methods, Variation, VideosBy David M. Williams, PhD Harvardx course Practical Improvement Science in Health Care with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Have you ever wondered about the relationship between two measures. For example, what happens to patient satisfaction when people have longer wait times? A scatter plot is a graphical tool used to examine the association between two […]
Histograms
in Health Care, Tools & Methods, Variation, VideosBy David M. Williams, PhD Harvardx course Practical Improvement Science in Health Care with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Understanding variation is one of the key lenses of our theory of improvement. As improvers, we aim to reduce the variation of process and create a process that achieves a certain level of reliability. One tool that […]