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.