Funnel plots for comparing institutional performance
Top Cited Papers
- 29 November 2004
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Statistics in Medicine
- Vol. 24 (8), 1185-1202
- https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.1970
Abstract
‘Funnel plots’ are recommended as a graphical aid for institutional comparisons, in which an estimate of an underlying quantity is plotted against an interpretable measure of its precision. ‘Control limits’ form a funnel around the target outcome, in a close analogy to standard Shewhart control charts. Examples are given for comparing proportions and changes in rates, assessing association between outcome and volume of cases, and dealing with over‐dispersion due to unmeasured risk factors. We conclude that funnel plots are flexible, attractively simple, and avoid spurious ranking of institutions into ‘league tables’. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Keywords
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