• Article of the Month
  
  • A Selection of Statistical Process Control Tools Used in Monitoring Health Care Performance[®] Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Expert Commentaries, November 9, 2009, by By: Stephen Schmaltz, PhD [Recommended for: JCSC, PI, LDR] – The AOM for this month is actually one of the references listed in the Benchmark series article (in The Source, October, Volume 12, Issue 10) entitled, Performance Measurement Toolbox: Displaying Data for Effective Analysis. For PI Directors/Quality Managers who have to make sense of ORYX reports, we thought the brief overview of Control Charts in this article might be a useful refresher or solidifier of your understanding. It, along with the Source article it supports, contains helpful definitions of Special and Common Cause Variation and explains their significance. We also thought this might be a particularly good reference to have in our/your library for new PI Directors/Quality Managers and Leaders. See if you agree!  Let us know if you have something better. Click the title above for full text of the AHRQ article and the following links for the TJC Source article.
    
  • Click here for our REVIEW(Mbr/Guest); the FULL TJC ARTICLE(Mbr); to share a COMMENT(Mbr/Guest).

**RECOMMENDED READING:

1. PR: Sentinel Event Statistics for First Half of 2014 Ftxt [REF:LDR, PI, RN]
2. PR: New R3 Report Addresses Memory Care Requirements Ftxt [REF: LDR, MD, RN]
3. TS: Care Planning for Behavioral Health Care Ftxt [REF: BHC, Clin Dir, StEd]
4. TS: CJCP: Focus on Required Written Documentation Ftxt [REF: CJCP, IM, JCSC]
5. TS: Performance… Toolbox: Displaying Data for Effective Analysis Ftxt [Ref: JCSC, PI]
   
6. EC: C&E:…Key safety issues to watch for on EC tours Ftxt [REF: EOC, JCSC]
7. EC: Disaster Privileges for Emergency Volunteers Ftxt [REF: MD, SFT]

**USEFUL UPDATES, LINKS & DOWNLOADS:

• 2015 Accreditation and Certification Decision Rules for All Programs (10/7/14)
• Deeming-Related Revisions for Hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals
• R3 Report #6: Memory care accreditation requirements for nursing care centers
• Applying High Reliability Principles to the Prevention and Control of Infections in Long Term Care – 50-minute e-learning tool/webinar includes examples, quizzes, discussion questions… to learn and test… knowledge about high reliability in health care.
  
• BHC: Overcoming Challenges to Person-Centered Care… Planning -8/13/14
  
• A Selection of Statistical Process Control Tools Used in Monitoring Health Care Performance – Stephen Schmaltz, PhD
• P&P: Disaster Privileges For Volunteer Licensed Independent Practitioners
• Latest TJC Blogs: Physician Leader Monthly – Leadership Blog
  

**SupporTips

• S-Tip#22: The Survey Resources Page – Part 1 – Whether in anticipation of survey, during survey or when responding to the findings of a completed survey, the SPHCC website has valuable information, references, tips and tools you should know about.  The easiest place to discover them is on the dedicated Survey Resources page (SRP). So, how do you find it?
  
  •  Step 1: Log into your hospital’s home page/custom resource page.
  •  Step 2: Find the ‘Survey Resources’ link in the ‘Your Member Content’ panel on the right side of the window. Click and you are there!
    

  The SRP has three divisions corresponding to the three phases of survey activity referenced above.  Find this page and explore it.  Next month we will begin to explain more about why, how and when to use these resources to best support your standards compliance and survey readiness efforts.