Healthcare Update: Quality Tools and Applications

Welcome to Healthcare Update: Quality Tools and Applications. Each monthly edition features a specific tool and includes a template, how-to method or case study, with tips for use or accounts of how the tool could be used. This edition allows members of the ASQ community to share ideas and best practices for making the most of quality tools.

Pareto Chart

In a Pareto chart, or bar graph, the lengths of the bars represent frequency or cost (time or money) and are arranged with longest bars on the left and the shortest to the right. This way, the chart visually depicts which situations are more significant.

Read a case study that shows the role Pareto analysis played in the application of lean Six Sigma to reduce the length of stay of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the Red Cross Hospital in Beverwijk in The Netherlands. In "Quality Quandaries: Health Care Quality—Reducing the Length of Stay at a Hospital," the authors show how Pareto analysis can help you get a feel for the information buried in data collected in a quality improvement study.

 Additional Resources

• Pareto chart definition: Also called a Pareto diagram and Pareto analysis; learn when to use a Pareto chart, the procedures involved and some examples.
• Pareto chart template, use this template to create your own Pareto chart.
• "Building From the Basics," Quality Progress article. 
• "Improving a System," Quality Progress article. 
• "Managing Six Sigma: Understanding the Importance of Self Study," Six Sigma Green Study Guide: Chapter 1—Define.
• "A Dose of DMAIC," Quality Progress article.

Have a Tool or Application to Submit?

Is there a specific tool, template or how-to method you’ve used to obtain better results or make processes more efficient? If so, submit it for consideration in Healthcare Update: Quality Tools and Applications.

Suggestions for submissions:

• Try using one of the downloadable tools or templates provided here. Write about how you used the template within a specific project for improved results. Or, offer an idea for improving or expanding the template. Look at the tools that have already been highlighted.
• Have you created your own quality tool template, one you can’t live without? Write a short description and instructions, and send it to us to consider for publication.    
• Have you seen a particularly creative use of a quality tool in an unexpected setting? Tell us about it. 
• What are your top three tips for using a particular quality tool successfully?  

Submissions should be about 500 words. Please note: This newsletter is not intended to promote or sell products or services. To be considered for a future issue of Healthcare Update: Quality Tools and Applications, e-mail your tool or application to editor Nicole Adrian.

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