Samantha Riley, Director of Making Data Count (2 January 2025)
“I wanted to write and thank you for all of the research that you have undertaken related to the use of SPC [Statistical Process Control] charts in the NHS and the impact of the Making Data Count work that I have been leading.
Your initial paper published in 2016 (Schmidtke, et al. BMJ Qual Saf 2017; 26: 61-9) has been a very important piece of evidence to demonstrate not only the value of using SPC charts, but also to highlight the lack of use and understanding of SPC charts in the NHS. This research paper has very much shaped the Making Data Count programme as it is today and I have tried to address each of the issues identified as barriers in the paper.
We have now undertaken 233 board development sessions and in addition have trained over 42,000 staff at different levels of seniority (clinical, managerial and support staff) – the majority of these virtually since the pandemic. We train analysts in both the theory behind SPC and the practicalities of how to create charts, plus we have made available a range of free products to enable SPC charts to be created locally. These range from easy to use Excel tools designed for frontline staff to several thousand lines of SQL script and Power BI templates which enable the creation of SPC charts at scale. We have an analyst network of other 550 members and an online collaboration site which has now grown significantly with nearly 15,000 members – all who are passionate about the use of SPC to benefit patient care.
The Making Data Count materials were recently translated into Norwegian and launched at the National Patient Safety conference in Oslo. Closer to home NHS England has issued guidance to boards of both NHS Trusts and ICBs which recommend the use of SPC over traditionally based RAG reporting and maybe more importantly has adopted SPC to monitor national performance rather than RAG reporting which has been used for many years. I am hopeful that this last change will have a significant impact on the conversations which take place between NHS England, ICBs and healthcare providers.
Your most recently published paper (Schmidtke, et al. BMJ Qual Saf 2024), which demonstrated that boards are adopting SPC without even being trained by us, has been incredibly helpful and I have no doubt that the various pieces of research that you have independently undertaken have played a part in some of these very exciting changes at national level.
So thank you again for all of your support – your work has very much strengthened the evidence base for the benefits of using SPC in the NHS and the independent evaluation of the Making Data Count programme is very important as it provides additional credibility to the programme. I look forward to continuing our collaboration over the coming months and years.”