Population control charts for population data

Healthcare managers are beginning to collect full population data, rather than sample data, on some patient and performance measures. For example, hospitals and healthcare systems already gather and store comprehensive data on admissions, ambulatory encounters, and other procedures. And as the electronic medical record is more widely used, complete population data will be collected on an even wider range of clinical measures, such as blood pressure and Laboratory values, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. To correctly monitor process quality when working with full population data, rather than sample data, healthcare managers will need appropriate statistical tools. Traditional control charts, which are used for tracking processes over time, are not suitable for such population data because they are based on the assumption that sample data are being collected. The author proposes a new type of control chart specifically for use with such population data: population control charts. These control charts can be used for monitoring processes that have output measures with continuous, binomial, or nonbinomial rate variables.