The Use of Statistical Process Control in Healthcare

Statistical Process Control (SPC) is increasingly used in healthcare to monitor, understand, and improve the quality of services over time. Rather than relying on isolated audits or point-in-time inspections, SPC focuses on continuous measurement, identifying patterns and trends in clinical or operational processes. This enables organisations to distinguish between normal (common cause) variation and signals that suggest a fundamental change (special cause variation).

Statistical Process Control

SPC tools — particularly control charts — help healthcare teams visualise whether a process is stable or whether intervention is needed. It supports better decision-making by reducing overreaction to random variation and by highlighting when a genuine shift has occurred. Evidence shows SPC improves patient safety, reduces costs, and enhances clinical outcomes when used thoughtfully.

In practice, SPC is powerful for tracking variables like infection rates, incident rates, monitoring medication errors, or assessing service demand. Used properly, it becomes part of the organisational fabric — not just a measurement exercise, but a way of thinking that drives continuous, intelligent improvement.

Below is an SPC chart web app I made. Feel free to play with it. I have provided some example data for you to use. See if you can spot the "out-of-control" values. What might have caused these?

(The app is entirely "front-end", so your data doesn't go anywhere).


Copy and paste data below into the box in the web app above.

Example 1:
Average Number of Emergency Admissions via A&E by Month (2018 - 2023)

Month,Emergency Admissions via A&E
01,388654
02,359662
03,386798
04,360257
05,387101
06,381522
07,392692
08,382493
09,381951
10,395992
11,388252
12,395465


Example 2:
Percentage of Monthly Attendances to A&E That Were Admitted to Hospital

Date (yyyy.mm),Percentage Admitted
2018.04,18.9%
2018.05,18.4%
2018.06,18.3%
2018.07,18.2%
2018.08,19.5%
2018.09,19.2%
2018.10,19.5%
2018.11,19.8%
2018.12,20.2%
2019.01,19.9%
2019.02,19.3%
2019.03,19.2%
2019.04,19.2%
2019.05,19%
2019.06,18.9%
2019.07,18.4%
2019.08,18.8%
2019.09,18.8%
2019.10,19.4%
2019.11,19.4%
2019.12,19.5%
2020.01,19.7%
2020.02,19.4%
2020.03,21.3%
2020.04,28.1%
2020.05,24.8%
2020.06,23.9%
2020.07,22.9%
2020.08,21.5%
2020.09,21.9%
2020.10,23.3%
2020.11,23.5%
2020.12,24.2%
2021.01,26.6%
2021.02,25.3%
2021.03,22.6%
2021.04,21%
2021.05,20.2%
2021.06,18.9%
2021.07,19%
2021.08,19.1%
2021.09,18.1%
2021.10,18.3%
2021.11,18.7%
2021.12,20.3%
2022.01,19.5%
2022.02,18.7%
2022.03,17.5%
2022.04,17.7%
2022.05,17.2%
2022.06,17.1%
2022.07,16.9%
2022.08,17.9%
2022.09,18%
2022.10,17.1%
2022.11,17.3%
2022.12,16.8%
2023.01,18.9%
2023.02,18.1%
2023.03,17.9%
2023.04,18.2%
2023.05,17.6%
2023.06,17.4%
2023.07,18.2%
2023.08,18.5%
2023.09,17.9%
2023.10,18.3%
2023.11,18.6%
2023.12,18.9%
2024.01,18.3%
2024.02,18%
2024.03,18%

(Data from NHS Health Episode Statistics)

Comments

Post a Comment