The Primer on Simplified
Statistics
PREFACE
The Primer was conceived as the awareness dawned on
me that measurability was impossible without points to measure against. The other obvious
needs was communication. Around the hospital the communication seemed to be centered on
numbers. If two different departments could find reference points in numbers that they had
in common, there was hope the systems could be impacted to benefit each department.
The reality confounding the whole process was that
seldom did the authors of monitoring reports disclose the denominators involved in the
data. This gave no meaning to the data. In addition there was little attention given to
sampling techniques. However, as teaching identified these weaknesses and fixed them,
quality measurers wanted to do more with the data.
The communication between administration,
physicians and other health care professionals picked right up as issues were dealt with
on the unemotional level of numbers without finger pointing. It seemed worth the effort to
get a non-math statistics-of-sorts primer in the hands of those with new found confidence
that they can do it and make a difference in patient care and daily living for staff
members.
There were many contributors to this process, but
those closest to me that delivered the product were Linda Barley, Stephanie Valesky and
the most logical statistician know to man, Ed Burgess.
This version of non-math statistics is dedicated to
all of my loyal clients who made it clear to me that they can do it, just guide
them.
--Paula S. Swain, MSN, CPHQ, FNAHQ
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