SPC variables*
| *The variables are divided into eight categories and then further subdivided under subheadings in a category. Several articles reported more than one SPC variable. | |
| 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 |