Table 5 SPC variables*.
I | Biomedical variables |
Blood glucose and HbA1c measures | |
1 | HbA1c level in groups of diabetic patients52 |
2 | Blood glucose, as a daily group average, for intensive care patients on parenteral or enteral nutrition33 |
3 | Average blood glucose levels among intensive care unit patients on total parenteral nutrition per week25 |
4 | Standard deviation of blood glucose levels among intensive care unit patients on total parenteral nutrition per week25 |
5 | Capillary blood glucose measurements of individual patients56 |
6 | Individual patient blood glucose measurements38 |
7 | Individual patient fasting blood sugar measurements37,50 |
8 | Average of five consecutive HbA1c measurements in diabetic patients cared for by one clinician50 |
Peak expiratory flow rates (PEFR) | |
9 | Daily am (ie, morning) pre‐bronchodilator PEFR in asthmatic patients (litres/min)35,40 |
Pain | |
10 | Daily individual patient visual analogue pain scale recordings60 |
Cardiovascular system measures | |
11 | Blood pressure22,23,32 |
12 | Heart rate22,32 |
13 | Central venous pressure22 |
Urinary output | |
14 | Urinary output (during intensive care)22 |
Oxygen saturation | |
15 | Oxygen saturation (during intensive care)22 |
II | Biomedical measurement variable |
16 | Blood pressure measurement error (mm Hg)23 |
III | Other variables related to patient health |
17 | Patient fall rate (number of patient falls/number of cases per month)51 |
18 | Days in between asthma attacks70 |
19 | Nausea on day 3 after administration of chemotherapy, as reported by patients on a scale, displayed as the average in each sample of four consecutive patients67 |
20 | Incontinence volume (of fluid) for individual incontinent patients (in “a change‐program”) on scheduled inspections16 |
21 | Volume of irrigation fluid absorbed during endoscopic renal pelvic surgery41 |
IV | Clinical management variables |
Time to complete (part of) a clinical process | |
22 | Time between patient check‐in and interpretation of a preoperative radiograph17 |
23 | Door‐to‐needle time: “the time span between hospital admission and the initiation of thrombolytic therapy in patients with acute myocardial infarction”46,48 |
24 | Average length of stay for inpatients with congestive heart failure54 |
25 | Length of stay after cardiac surgery (risk adjusted and transformed)71 |
26 | Average length of stay for total hip replacement patients28 |
27 | Intensive care unit admission time42 |
28 | Average postoperative (bowel surgery) length of stay (in days) per month42 |
29 | Admission time (from “sign in” to “patient in room”)18,31 |
30 | Duration of intravenous antibiotic treatment for patients with pneumonia37 |
31 | Time to administration of antibiotic treatment for patients with pneumonia37 |
32 | Average length of hospital stay for inpatients with pneumonia37 |
33 | Time to extubation after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery (hours)47 |
34 | Length of stay in the intensive care unit after CABG (days)47 |
35 | Total hospital length of stay after CABG (days)47 |
36 | Laboratory turnaround time for blood tests19,27 |
37 | Average postoperative length of stay after non‐emergent CABG surgery, per quarter30 |
38 | Time from receiving a referral to first patient contact (days)49 |
Time, or number of consecutive cases, between events | |
39 | Time between deaths in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease54 |
40 | Number of successful elective CABG surgeries between cases with mortality42 |
41 | Number of successful CABG surgeries between cases with complications42 |
42 | Number of successful bowel resection operations between cases with complications42 (see also variable 18 for another example) |
Rate of events in a clinical process (“defect rate” or “success rate”) | |
43 | Percentage of chief complaints (of patients in an emergency department) charted in free text (as opposed to coded) in the medical record, per day53 |
44 | Percentage of anaesthesia sessions with at least one “significant anaesthetic event”57 |
45 | Mortality in patients with congestive heart failure54 |
46 | Proportion of low birthweight infants54 |
47 | Percentage of intravenous medication administration events associated with an error24 |
48 | Occurrence of four intraoperative adverse events, of relevance to anaesthetic quality and safety: inadequate analgesia during brachial plexus block, emergence from general anaesthesia, intubation problems and medication errors64 |
49 | Proportion of patients with excessive absorption of irrigation fluid during transurethral resection of the prostate36 |
50 | Mortality after CABG42 |
51 | Proportion of patients on enteral, or parenteral, nutrition with blood glucose levels outside a (clinical management) target range33 |
52 | Daily percentage of satisfied requests for medical records at a paediatric outpatient clinic18 |
53 | “Guideline non‐adherence rate”; proportion of chemotherapy administrations in which guideline recommendations to prevent nausea were not followed67 |
54 | Percentage of all blood cultures growing contaminants per month68 |
55 | Proportion of intensive care unit patients on total parenteral nutrition with blood glucose values that were higher than the given target (>11.1 mmol/l (>200 mg/dl)) per week25 |
56 | Percentage of all acute bronchitis visits during which a β‐agonist was prescribed, per month34 |
57 | Percentage of all acute bronchitis visits during which an antibiotic was prescribed, per month34 |
58 | Percentage of outpatient surgical procedures per month (of all procedures)43 |
59 | Proportion of cases where tests were delayed or not reported in a timely fashion15 |
60 | Proportion of incontinent patients (in “a toileting program”) who were wet on scheduled inspections16 |
61 | Monthly percentage of emergency department patients who leave without being seen45 |
62 | Percentage of inpatients on the ward in each of three acuity levels (low, medium and high) per day26 |
63 | The quarterly incidence rate of eight variables among cardiac surgery patients: perioperative death, perioperative myocardial infarction; cerebrovascular accident; re‐exploration for bleeding or tamponade; atrial fibrillation; leg wound; acute tubular necrosis; sternal infection; acute renal failure30 |
64 | Rates of total and major complications per patient after cardiac surgery30 |
65 | Proportion of first case starts each day in the operating theatres that are delayed due to the department of anaesthesia39 |
66 | Proportion of cases in which the turnaround time between cases exceeded the given performance standard39 |
Number of defects/events or occurrences in a clinical process | |
67 | Number of medication errors, per month24 |
68 | Number of out‐of‐hours “stat” (blood test analyses) requests received each week58 |
69 | Number of MRSA cases per month61 |
70 | Number of diabetes patients (seen at office visits) with HbA1c measurements, per month34 |
71 | Number of patients (seen at office visits) at a department of family medicine with a recorded diagnosis of tobacco abuse, per month34 |
72 | Total number of surgical procedures per month43 |
73 | Number of patients with diarrhoea admitted to the hospital, per week44 |
74 | Number of referrals per month for patients with diabetes from primary care to endocrinology55 |
75 | Number of new referrals per work day49 |
76 | Net number of new patients ( = practice growth)63 |
Clinical decision making | |
77 | (Square root of) the number of cases per general practitioner (GP) diagnosed as having tonsillitis versus number of cases diagnosed as having any throat infection62 |
78 | (Square root of) the number of GP patients diagnosed as having tonsillitis and non‐tonsillar throat infection, who receive antibiotics62 |
79 | (Square root of) the number of GP cases with any throat infection diagnosis who received antibiotics62 |
80 | (Square root of) the number of GP cases with a diagnosis of sore throat in which antibiotics were not prescribed versus the number of cases in which antibiotics were prescribed66 |
V | Financial resources variables |
Cost of care | |
81 | Average cost per procedure (total hip replacement)28 |
82 | Staffing expense per shift, depicted as variance in US$ from budget26 |
83 | Staffing expense per 24‐h period, depicted as variance in US$ from budget26 |
Productivity and efficiency | |
84 | Relative value unit (RVU) production per provider FTE (full‐time equivalent) ( = provider productivity)63 |
85 | FTE support staff per FTE provider ( = practice efficiency)63 |
Organisational financial performance | |
86 | Net patient revenue per relative value unit (a primary care physician‘s practice) ( = practice profitability)63 |
87 | Provider cost as a percent of net revenue ( = practice cost management)63 |
88 | Non‐provider cost as a percentage of net revenue ( = practice cost management)63 |
VI | Variables relating to the experience of healthcare |
Patient satisfaction indicators | |
89 | “Physician care scale score”, which is the average of patient survey responses to 10 questions59 |
90 | Patient satisfaction with (nursing) care65 |
91 | Percentage of patients (who responded to a patient satisfaction survey) whose response was that the overall visit was excellent29 |
Other experience with care | |
92 | Patient rating of assistance in solving the patient's current health problem65 |
93 | Staff satisfaction with (nursing) care65 |
94 | Staff rating of assistance in solving patients' current health problems65 |
VII | Variables related to clinical staff supervision |
Clinical staff supervision | |
95 | Active treatment monitoring index, based on observing staff performance in clinical encounters and assessing nine criteria20 |
Completion of mandatory staff training | |
96 | Percentage of employees who have completed mandatory safety training21 |
VIII | Other variables |
97 | “A temperature signal” (of unspecified origin; it is probably not body temperature since it varies around 74°F or 23°C). “[T]he signal could just as easily have been bed occupancy, ED wait time, expense per equivalent discharge, or staffed care days.”69 |
*The variables are divided into eight categories and then further subdivided under subheadings in a category. Several articles reported more than one SPC variable.