Step 2 - Analyze Data

With the data gathered in Step 1, your team is now ready to analyze data, the second step of the DOH 5-Step Performance Improvement Process. Analyzing data from multiple sources reveals the "story behind the numbers" and helps narrow your team's focus. This allows your team to make informed decisions, and is critical in identifying true strengths and opportunities for improvement, and ultimately, in identifying potential priorities to work on.

Getting Started
Before your team begins data analysis, discuss and determine what criteria the team will use to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement.  You can then use the criteria to design an analysis matrix.

Criteria to consider when creating your analysis matrix include:

• Whether the data for a performance measure meets or exceeds an established target (e.g., check data against a Department of Health (DOH) program or local target)

• Whether the data shows significant improvement or a significant decline over time (e.g., look at several years' worth of data to view the trend)

• Whether the results of an audit indicate a measure as a strength or opportunity for improvement (e.g., review recent Bureau Summary Reports or program evaluations)
  
  Sample Analysis Matrix [11KB pdf]

Reviewing Your CHD or Central Office Snapshot Data
When analyzing data from the CHD Performance Snapshot [105KB pdf], take advantage of features built into these web-based Snapshots to customize how the data is viewed:

• Click on the measure number/name hyperlink (e.g., "1a.1 Heart Disease Deaths") for each performance measure to open a table displaying all counties' data for that measure.
  This table can be further sorted to display data by ascending or descending order, or alphabetically by county, to assist your team with analyzing the data.

• Click on the "county trend" (e.g., "Better") hyperlink for each measure to open a graph displaying trend data over time.
  This graph shows county trend data, state rate trend data, and the DOH target line, which is useful in determining CHD performance in relation to the target over a specified period of time rather than by a single data point.

• Click on "Export to Excel" to transfer and display data in an Excel spreadsheet.
  This spreadsheet can then be saved locally, and modified or customized to better meet your needs, including the addition of any other measures your organization maybe tracking. This will provide your team with a "single source" document for analyzing data.

Conducting the Analysis
When your team is ready to begin reviewing the data, there are certain questions to discuss that will help build the "picture behind the numbers".  By answering the following questions, your team will be able to give meaning to the data.

• Is the data comparable over time?  If so, what is the trend over time?

• Are there any gaps in the data?

• Who is responsible for monitoring the data? How is it being monitored?

• Does the data meet or exceed the established target(s)?

• Based on results of the data, was there an impact (positive or negative) to the program, services or activities?

• Are there any contributing factors impacting the data (e.g., was this a single event)?

• How did contributing factors impact the data? Was the data the result of an irregularity, or does data from other measures or sources support the identification of a strength or opportunity for improvement?

Trend Data
Viewing data trends shows progress (or lack of progress) made on specific measures over time. This provides a broader perspective of whether the data is an anomaly, or if performance on a measure has been consistent.

Resources for Data Analysis
Resources your team may find helpful when reviewing and analyzing data:

• Instant Atlas
  This mapping tool, licensed to DOH and supported by the Office of Performance Improvement, allows department staff to visually display data, including Snapshot data, in a customized format.
   

• The 5 Whys [333kb PDF]
  This simple method can be used to get to the root cause, or "heart of" an issue.
   

• Cause-and-Effect Diagram [282kb PDF] (aka Ishikawa or Fishbone Diagram)
  One important part of process improvement is continuously striving to obtain more information about the process and its output. Cause-and-effect diagrams allow us to do not only that, but also lead us to the root cause, or causes, of problems. It is a tool that enables you to systematically construct a graphical representation of the trail that leads ultimately to the root cause of a quality concern or problem.

Visit our Data Sources page for links to many more data sources, as well as other resources you may find helpful.

What's Next?
While conducting data analysis, strengths and opportunities for improvement should be identified. Before finalizing this list, consider the following questions for each:

• Are there other data sources that are better indicators of performance?

• Are there other data sources that may validate the need to improve performance?

At the conclusion of Step 2: Analyze Data, your team will have a list of strengths and opportunities for improvement, and is now ready to begin discussing and identifying priorities on which to focus efforts and resources ("Identify Priorities" - Step 3).

Have a question? Need help getting started?
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Staff in the Office of Performance Improvement is available to help you!
Contact us to request Technical Assistance (TA).

Updated 11/2011