Control Charts:
Looking for the irregular
Jeff Forrester - SUNY Binghamton
A local hospital has a long term staph infection rate of 3 cases per month. This month there were a total of six reported staph infections. Could this have happened by chance, or is this a signal that our infection rate has increased? Does our staff need additional training or new equipment?
A Control chart is a statistical tool designed to monitor a process for stability. They provide a method for differentiating between controlled variation (noise) and uncontrolled variation (signals) in our processes. Several types of control charts will be discussed along with examples of their application.
This talk is accessible at all levels.
Jeffrey Forrester is currently studying for a PhD at SUNY Binghamton with
research focused on Statistics.
He received his B.A. in Mathematics from Alfred University in 1992, and an M.A. in Mathematics from SUNY Binghamton in 1996. He is a
fellow in the "Preparing Future Faculty" Program in the Department of
Mathematical Sciences.