Guidelines on constructing funnel plots for quality indicators: A case study on mortality in intensive care unit patients.

ABSTRACT: Funnel plots are graphical tools to assess and compare clinical performance of a group of care professionals or care institutions on a quality indicator against a benchmark. Incorrect construction of funnel plots may lead to erroneous assessment and incorrect decisions potentially with severe consequences. We provide workflow-based guidance for data analysts on constructing funnel plots for the evaluation of binary quality indicators, expressed as proportions, risk-adjusted rates or standardised rates. Our guidelines assume the following steps: (1) defining policy level input; (2) checking the quality of models used for case-mix correction; (3) examining whether the number of observations per hospital is sufficient; (4) testing for overdispersion of the values of the quality indicator; (5)

SUBMITTER: Verburg IW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6193208 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature