Data Storytelling for the Infection Preventionist

Session Description: Healthcare-associated Infection (HAI) data can be a powerful tool to impact healthcare processes, and in turn, reduce preventable adverse outcomes. Data presentation is a form of visual storytelling. Our goal is to identify tools and resources to foster the Infection Preventionist’s (IP) ability to tell their data story in a manner that will evoke change through all levels of their organization(s).
Understanding the audience is critical to data presentation and enables the IP to present data in a comprehensible and visually appealing manner. We will explore ways to interpret well established HAI metrics and review which metrics to present to target audiences. We will discuss the difference between internal and external (or public) goals, using the cumulative attributable difference (CAD) to find the number of infections that must be prevented to achieve a goal, and how to incorporate that goal into the National Health Safety Network's (NHSN) statistical reports. We will also examine differences for reporting to a facility-wide audience versus front-line staff.
We will discuss different ways to display HAI metrics using statistical process control (SPC) in various graph types. We will provide recommendations for creating effective visuals and summarize software and tools that can be used to organize and create these visuals for presentations. We will provide a demonstration of how to quickly summarize data using pivot tables and charts. In addition, we will describe the different elements of an SPC and how the tool can be used to show when a process change has occurred.
Lastly, we will review the report set building function in NHSN to demonstrate how to manage HAI data quickly and effectively on an ongoing basis. This session will bolster an IP’s confidence in their understanding and ability to create and discuss their hospital’s data to any of their partners.