Tips and Techniques for Statistics and Quality Improvement

Length of stay, defined as the time between hospital admission and discharge measured in days, is an aspect of care that can be costly for most healthcare systems if not approached properly. Optimizing patient flow, on the other hand, facilitates beneficial treatment, minimal waiting, minimal exposure to risks associated with hospitalization, and efficient use of resources such as hospital beds, medical equipment and...

Here, there, everywhere — it's nearly impossible to escape hearing or seeing news on COVID-19. Not all news is bad though; the human spirit is resilient and efforts are underway all around the globe to find a vaccine. Healthcare systems are being tested like never before. However, in the face of this adversity, many like Adventist HealthCare, are rising to the occasion. 

As we collect more and more observational data from our processes, we might need new tools to provide meaningful insights. You can add modern-day machine learning techniques alongside traditional statistical tools to analyze, improve and control your processes. Let's take a look at an example that starts with binary logistic regression and ends with Classification and Regression Trees (CART®).

Content is available and accessible everywhere these days! A study from Nielsen found that adult Americans spend over 11 hours a day reading, listening, watching and interacting with media, which may even be higher now with so many individuals stuck at home. With the influx of content available, it might make you wonder: Is there a quantitative way to take a closer look at the text available to us?

Text mining, also...

Trying to understand customer or patient behavior can be challenging. Oftentimes, researchers’ use survey data and frequently analyze it using regression in Minitab Statistical Software. But when the outcome variable is categorical rather than quantitative, interpreting the results of a logistic regression is not very straightforward or intuitive.

Another option for analyzing survey data in Minitab? Tap into the...

Odds are you’re working from home if you’re reading this right now. While I don’t miss my commute, I certainly do miss popping into my coworkers’ offices. It’s especially useful to take care of last-minute changes. I’m putting an emphasis there on last minute. The harsh truth is, we were already in trouble if we weren’t aligned on project statuses and expectations to begin with.

When you hear about projects that save Fortune 500 companies millions, you might think operational excellence and continuous improvement programs guarantee success. Experienced practitioners tell a different story. We surveyed nearly 200 of them at all skill levels from major companies across the United States. What was the one factor they believed tied most directly to success?

When the data science buzz began around a decade ago, creating a predictive model was complicated work that only skilled programmers could accomplish. Today, new tools and new techniques are shifting the focus from programming details to building models that are robust, scalable and focused on creating business value.

We all have our favorite tools, tricks, methods and ways for completing, tracking and improving our work. Personally I'm a visual learner, so I’ve always been drawn to process mapping and flowcharts. 

Love it or hate it, brainstorming is something we've all done at some point in our lives. Those sessions may have been disorderly at times with ideas coming from every direction or totally structured with the help of a particular diagram.

Since the late 1960's, Ishikawa diagrams have helped millions of people through the process of brainstorming potential causes of an effect or problem and mapping those relationships.