title: Process control charts in infection prevention: Make it simple to make it happen.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Quality improvement is central to Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) programs. Challenges may occur when applying quality improvement methodologies like process control charts, often due to the limited exposure of typical IPs. Because of this, our team created an open-source database with a process control chart generator for IPC programs. The objectives of this report are to outline the development of the application and demonstrate application using simulated data.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap Consortium, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN), R (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria), and R Studio Shiny (R Foundation for Statistical Computing) to create an open source data collection system with automated process control chart generation. We used simulated data to test and visualize both in-control and out-of-control processes for commonly used metrics in IPC programs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The R code for implementing the control charts and Shiny application can be found on our Web site (https://github.com/ul-research-support/spcapp). Screen captures of the workflow and simulated data indicating both common cause and special cause variation are provided.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Process control charts can be easily developed based on individual facility needs using freely available software. Through providing our work free to all interested parties, we hope that others will be able to harness the power and ease of use of the application for improving the quality of care and patient safety in their facilities.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY. Electronic address: tim.wiemken@louisville.edu.
authors.forename: Timothy L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Wiemken
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.
authors.forename: Stephen P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Furmanek
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.
authors.forename: Ruth M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Carrico
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.
authors.forename: William A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Mattingly
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.
authors.forename: Annuradha K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Persaud
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.
authors.forename: Brian E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Guinn
authors.affiliation: Department of Math and Computer Science, St Mary's College of Maryland, St Mary's City, MD.
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Kelley
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.
authors.forename: Julio A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ramirez
mesh_terms: D001317:Austria; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods*; D012984:Software; D012985:Software Design
keywords: Health care-associated infection; Quality improvement; Surveillance