Circ Cardiovasc Qual
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Circ Cardiovasc Qual · Jan 2013
Statistical methods to monitor risk factors in a clinical database: example of a national cardiac surgery registry.
Comparison of outcomes requires adequate risk adjustment for differences in patient risk and the type of intervention performed. Both unintentional and intentional misclassification (also called gaming) of risk factors might lead to incorrect benchmark results. Therefore, misclassification of risk factors should be detected. We investigated the use of statistical process control techniques to monitor the frequency of risk factors in a clinical database. ⋯ Statistical process control in the form of a Shewhart control chart, exponentially weighted moving average, and cumulative sum charts provide a means to monitor changes in risk factor frequencies in a clinical database. Surveillance of the overall expected risk in addition to the separate risk factors ensures a high sensitivity to detect gaming. The use of statistical process control for risk factor surveillance is recommended.
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Circ Cardiovasc Qual · Jan 2013
Multicenter StudySurvival trends in pediatric in-hospital cardiac arrests: an analysis from Get With the Guidelines-Resuscitation.
Despite ongoing efforts to improve the quality of pediatric resuscitation, it remains unknown whether survival in children with in-hospital cardiac arrest has improved. ⋯ Rates of survival to hospital discharge in children with in-hospital cardiac arrests have improved over the past decade without higher rates of neurological disability among survivors.