Decision Support Applications using Statistical Process Control (SPC)

and Virtual Instrumentation (VI)

Izabella A. Gieras, BS, Eric Rosow, MS, Joseph Adam, MS, Chris Roth, BS, and John D. Enderle, PhD
Hartford Hospital, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hartford, CT
Premise Development Corporation, Avon, CT
University of Connecticut, Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Storrs, CT 06269-2 157

LabVIEW requires 16 MB RAM, 32 MB

recommended, Pentium recommended and 500-MB hard
disk space, SVGA monitor, CD-ROM and 3.5-inch floppy
disk [2]. The objective in VI is to use a general-purpose
computer to mimic real instruments with their dedicated
controls and displays, but with added versatility that comes
with this software [3].
Main front panel was designed in LabVIEW as
displayed in Figure 1 below. It consists of a list of 6
different departments and their corresponding indicators.
When the VI is run, the panel is activated and where out
of range signals have been detected, visual alarm will be
triggered by red blinking light informing the user that this
indicator needs to be investigated further. The green
blinking light indicates a stable process.

Abstract- Healthcare is an ever-changing environment and

it is essential for each medical institution to be prepared to
face and consequently conquer the future advancements in
technology. This task can be accomplished by the
implementation of appropriate healthcare performance and
quality measures, namely indicators, within a control system.
Statistical Process Control (SPC) together with a Virtual
Instrumentation (VI) programming environment called
LabVIEW (National Instruments), was used to develop the
necessary system.

I. INTRODUCTION

The primary objective of this project was to design and

develop a control system for the implementation of
different quality and performance indicators in healthcare.
The following five indicators were selected in the
Biomedical Engineering Department at Hartford Hospital:
number of medical equipment breakdowns, total number of
work orders, average hours and cost per service call and
percentage of completed preventive maintenance
inspections. These indicators were measured in the
following six departments, namely Anesthesia, Biomedical
Engineering, Hemodialysis, Operating Rooms, Radiology
and Respiratory Care. This data was taken from the
biomedical engineering medical equipment database,
WOSYST (St. Croix System) and stored in MS Excel.
With the use of LabVIEW, appropriate indicators were
modeled with various statistical tools, such as control and
Pareto charts and histograms. With the use of expert
system designed in LabVIEW, the user can be notified of
any potential problems, just in time to implement various
techniques for their improvement.
Application of Statistical Process Control (SPC) was
used in LabVIEW in order to graphically display the
predefined indicators. SPC is a method of monitoring,
controlling and, ideally, improving a process through
statistical analysis. It includes the following steps:
measuring the process, eliminating variances in the process
to make it consistent, monitoring the process, and
improving the process to its best target value [ 11.

Fig. 1. Main front panel in LabVIEW accessing

indicators in all 6 departments
Another front panel was created for the graphical data
display and analysis. This is shown in Figure 2. Each
indicator data is read from MS Excel for the individual
department. Control Chart of type c was used and upper,
central and lower control limits were set accordingly to
monitor the data. Pareto chart, displaying the data in
descending order and thus concentrating primarily on the

11. DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

0-7803-6341-8/00/$10.00 02000 IEEE

57

left side of the chart, constituted another statistical data

analysis method.

Fig. 3. Expert System in LabVIEW - pop-up dialog box

IV. CONCLUSIONS

Fig. 2. Design of SPC Front Panel in LabVIEW

111. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. SPC System in LabVIEW

The design process mentioned in section 2 was implemented

in all 6 departments. The capability indexes, standard deviations
and means were calculated in LabVIEW. These were indicative
of the range of variability present within each indicator process.
With the use of an add-on package, MS QI (Lifestar, Inc.),
the data will be further analyzed for detection of trends and
patterns.
B. Experf System

With the design of statistical process control

applications in LabVIEW, it is essential to have the user
notified when the monitored process has gone over the
predefined limits. This was done with an implementation
of pop-up dialog boxes in LabVIEW acting as an expert
system. An expert system acted as a computer program that
simulated the judgement and behavior of a human that has
expert knowledge and experience in a particular field [4].
The dialog boxes not only alarm the user of changes
occurring within a process but also provide some intuitive
suggestions on how the user can go about rectifying the
existing problem. Figure 3 displays a sample dialog box.

With the designed control system, the biomedical

engineering department at Hartford Hospital will be
capable of constantly monitoring the predefined indicators
and make appropriate changes where necessary in order to
avoid any potential losses. This is especially applicable to
the medical equipment breakdown and cost per service call
indicators. The designed system will work closely with the
medical equipment database, WOSYST, for real-time data
input. This system will also have the capability of being
extended for the implementation of other indicators from
different databases.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Special thanks would like to be extended to Eric
Rosow, Joe Adam, Chris Roth for their help and expertise
in LabVJEW as well as Dr Bronzino and Dr Enderle for
their academic guidance.
REFERENCES
[ l ] Duncan W.J., Ginter P.M., Swayne L.E. (1998).
Handbook of Health Care Management. Oxford:

Blackwell Publishers.
LabVIEW Catalogue, 1999. National Instruments, TX.
Johnson, G.W.,
LabVIEW Graphical Programming
Practical Applications in Instrumentation and
Control. McGraw-Hill, 1997.
Expert System, (1999). httD://whatis.com/expertsy.htm