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Criterion are individual indicators that you want to monitor. A group of related Criterion are combined under a descriptive heading called a 'Topic'. Criterion can have sub-criterion, which can further have sub-criterion, forming a parent/child relationship between them. There is no limit to the number of levels for nesting. Criterion at the top level is refered to as a 'Topic'.

 

Following are a few hints that may want to consider when creating a Topic or Criterion:

 

▪Yes/No Questions: At the time of data entry Criterion need to be answered as a Yes (), No () or NA (). Hence criterion should be questions which are answered with either "Yes", "No", or "NA", e.g. instead creating a Criterion as 'After how many hours was verbal hours signed?' re-word the question as 'Was verbal order signed within 4 hours?'

 

▪Single question Criterion: Do not combine multiple questions into one Criterion e.g. Instead of creating a Criterion as 'Was verbal order signed and dated?' create two separate question 'Was verbal order signed?' and 'Was verbal order dated?' Creating two separate question would allow the reviewer to answer them independent of each other.

 

▪When to Create a Topic v/s Criterion: Rights are assigned at the Topic level not for individual Criterion. Similarly individual Topics can be included in a Review Template. Thus including a Topic would include all its Criterion in a Review Template. They have all or none relationship; however there are ways to use a Criterion in one Review Template and ignore it in another even if that Criterion is part of a single Topic, as discussed later in 'Disabling a Criterion for a Review Template'.

 

▪Topics CAPS and Filter: Although not mandatory it is recommended that the Topic be created in all CAPS, so that it stands out. Its Filter is also typically set to 'Display Only'.

 

▪Calculating Parent Values:' Parent criterion values are calculated automatically as discussed below in 'Calculating Parent Values'. This should be a guiding principle when leveling them.

 

Components

 

Each Topic and Criterion has the following attributes.

 

oLong Description: This is the full text description of the Topic or Criterion. This text shows up for data entry, reports, analyzers and dashboards. The Long Description can have a maximum length of 4000 characters.

 

oStandard No.: For each criterion you can store a standard no. or an EP no. This appears in the reports and analyzer cube.

 

oState/Default Value: All Criterion need to be answered as Yes (), No () or N/A (). For faster data entry they may assigned a default value. When performing data entry a Criterion is automatically assigned this default value. It may be helpful to assign the most likely answer to the question; typically 'Yes' as default value. Setting the default value to mandatory (), ensures that the criterion is not left at its default value. Further, can the mandatory criterion be answered as N/A in data entry, can be controlled from System Options.

 

oThreshold: When reporting a Criterion is supposed to meet a minimum standard of compliance, this is defined as threshold. For meeting full compliance threshold is defined as 100. If a Criterion threshold is not applicable it can be defined as N/A. Threshold is set at the Review Template level, thus same Criterion can have different thresholds between different Review Templates.

 

oFilter: Filter controls which Criterion gets reported and how they appear in the report. Setting the filter to 'Archive' also disables it from data entry. Filters are set at the Review Template level, thus the same Criterion can have different filters between different Review Templates. Multiple filters can also be set for a single Criterion in the same Review Template using Review Template Profiles.

 

▪Display Only: When a criterion is specified as display only, it will not display the numbers (i.e. Threshold, Yes, No) in the reports. Typically Topics whose numeric data is not important are specified as 'Display Only'.

▪On: When a criterion is specified as 'On', it will be appear in a report at the top level, like a heading, along with its threshold and numeric total.

▪Off: When a criterion is specified as 'Off', it will appear in report only if it's immediate parent's filter is set to 'On' or 'Display Only'. It also gives an indented look to the criterion under its parent.

▪Never: When a child criterion filter is specified as 'Off' it still appears in the report if its parent is 'On' or 'Display Only'. If you do not want this criterion to appear anytime in reports or analyzers, set it to 'Never'.

▪Archive: Criterion that are old and no longer relevant or for which new questions have been created may be specified as 'Archive'. Once specified, the criterion will appear with a strikeout in topic editor and will not show in data entry. Also, they will not appear in any of the reports or analyzer cubes. However, if you still want to run reports on such criterion (i.e. for historical data), you can create a new Review Template Profile. Set this criterion filter from Archive to 'On', 'Off' or 'Display Only' in this new profile. Now when running the report and choose this newly created profile in the Topics tab of the report dialog or analyzer dialog, you should see the criterion appear in the report.

 

oShort Description: Short Description will be used in place of the long description in Data Analyzer, Graphs, Selecting Report Parameters box in the Topics tab, and when assigning Topic rights. The Short Description populates from the first 25 characters entered for the Long Description and will only be changed when edited. They have a maximum length of 25 characters.

 

oTool Tip: Tool tip can be used to describe the criterion, the reasoning behind the question and how it should be answered. Tool tips appear in at the time of data entry. If no tool tip is defined for a child criterion, it will display the tool tip of its parent.

 

Topic Rights

 

Topic rights are assigned at the Topic level and apply to all the Criterion under that Topic. They are assigned for editing the Topic and Criterion across the enterprise, and for data entry for an individual Facility. This gives you the granularity to allow a user to perform data entry on a Topic for one Facility but not on another Facility. For editing the Topics rights can be:

 

▪None: Cannot access the Topic.

▪Read-only: Can only view the Topics and Criterion and include them in a Review Template, but cannot make changes to it.

▪Read-write: Read-only + Ability to make changes to Topic or Criterion.

▪Full Access: Read-write + Ability to further assign rights to other roles and delete the Topic from the 'Global Topic Editor' database. The user who creates a Topic its default role automatically gets full access to that Topic.

 

For worksheet data entry, Topic rights for each Facility can be:

 

▪None: Cannot access the Topic.

▪Read-only: Can only view the Topics and Criterion, but cannot make changes to it.

▪Read-write: Read-only + Ability to make changes to Topic or Criterion.

 

Calculating Parent Values

 

Parent values depend on its children (sub-criterion). The following algorithm is used for calculating them:

 

▪If 1 children is 'No' (falls-out), the parent is 'No' (falls-out).

▪If all children are 'Yes', the parent is 'Yes' (fully compliant).

▪If all children are 'NA', the parent is 'NA' (does not apply).

 

Typically when aggregating data for multiple worksheets parent compliance is usually less than its children. The point to be noted is that parent compliance is NOT sum total of its children. In a hypothetical example suppose we entered data for 3 worksheets for a sample set of Criterion.

 

 

 

Disabling a Criterion for a Review Template

 

Typically you would create a Topic once in 'Global Topic Editor' and use it in multiple Review Templates. The advantage of doing this is that you can review that Topic only once in one Review Template and just include it in another Review Template. You do not have to re-review it again for the same record. It also allows for aggregate reporting of data when running Global Reports.  However if you realize that you want to review all the Criterion in Review Template 1, but in another Review Template you want to review all the Criterion but one. You cannot delete that Criterion from the Topic, because deleting it from second Review Template would delete it from first one too, as they are linked to the same Topic. To accomplish this you should include the Topic in the second Review Template and set the Filter to 'Archive', thus disabling any data entry and reporting only in the second Review Template.