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Monitoring medical procedures by exponential smoothing
Author(s) -
Spliid Henrik
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
statistics in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.996
H-Index - 183
eISSN - 1097-0258
pISSN - 0277-6715
DOI - 10.1002/sim.2520
Subject(s) - ewma chart , control chart , chart , exponential smoothing , computer science , medicine , smoothing , event (particle physics) , medical prescription , failure rate , statistics , reliability engineering , mathematics , engineering , process (computing) , operating system , physics , quantum mechanics , pharmacology
A new exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart well suited for ‘online’ routine surveillance of medical procedures is introduced. The chart is based on inter‐event counts for failures recorded when the failures occur. The method can be used for many types of hospital procedures and activities, such as problems or errors in surgery, hospital‐acquired infections, erroneous handling or prescription of medicine, deviations from scheduled treatments causing inconveniences for patients. The construction, the use and the effectiveness of the control chart are demonstrated by two well‐known examples about wound infection in orthopaedic surgery and neonatal arterial switch surgery. The method is easy to implement and apply, it illustrates, estimates and tests the current failure rate. Comparisons with two examples from the literature indicate that its ability to quickly detect an increased failure rate is comparable to that of other well‐established methods. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.