Dr Ian McKillop

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Using the Hospital Report WHIC Tool to calculate
your HAA indicator values
Dr Ian McKillop Executive Director, University
Health Research JW Graham Chair in Health
Information Systems University of Waterloo on
behalf of the Collaborative
University of Waterloo
Summer 2006 Regional Sessions
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What is WHIC? It is the Wizard for Hospital
Indicator Calculation. Originally developed by
the Hospital Report Research Collaborative to
allow hospitals to calculate some of their
Hospital Report indicator values. Working with
the JPPC, weve added the ability to also
calculate indicators used in the Hospital
Accountability Agreements.
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How much does it cost? WHIC is FREE but
you need a copy of SAS to use WHIC. We have made
special arrangements for every hospital in
Ontario to obtain a SAS license for a very
nominal amount.
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How do I get a copy? Simply download the WHIC
program from our website. www.hospitalreport.ca Ho
ver over Access our Software and choose WHIC
Tool. Follow the Installing WHIC directions.
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There is even a wizard to install our wizard.
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Hint Be sure to uninstall any old copies of WHIC
first especially if you were one of the test
site hospitals. Telling NEW WHIC from older
versions
New WHIC says "Version 1.3" or later, and has
HRRC logo in top left corner
Old WHIC has white HRRC logo in top right
corner.
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If you are an experienced WHIC user, the only
visible big change you will notice is the new
module choice for HAA.
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How does it work?
WHIC Software
Datasets your hospital holds locally (OHRS,
NACRS, DAD, etc.)
(JPPC algorithms plus Hospital Report algorithms)
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What can WHIC calculate?
Volume Indicators Total Acute Weighted
Cases Total Acute Cases Rehab Patient Days Mental
Health Inpatient Days ELDCAP Patient
Days Emergency Visits Ambulatory Care Outpatient
Visits
Monitoring Indicators Capital Asset Non-MOH
Funding ALOS for all Hospital Acute Cases TLOS
for all Hospital Acute Cases In-hospital
Mortality Bladder Continence
Restraint Pain Indwelling Catheters Improved
ADL New Skin Ulcers Nursing Productivity ( Total
Debt later)
Performance indicators Current ratio Total
margin Acute LOS for selected CMG Total LOS for
selected CMG Relative Risk of Readmission to own
facility Percent Full Time Nurses (05/06) Percent
Full Time Nurses (06/07)
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Using WHIC is a 4 step process. Load your
data. Design a report. Generate your
indicators. Drill down to explore further.
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WHIC warns you if imported records are being
ignored, and explains why. Here we see a NACRS
import where records are being rejected for
things like invalid birthdates, invalid sex, etc.)
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Various "quick pick" options are
available. e.g., "select all volume and
performance indicators."
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WHIC generates .pdf reports suitable for printing
and circulation. You can save report formats you
wish to run frequently so that they don't need to
be redefined each time you use WHIC.
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WHIC can also generate Excel files with detailed
indicator results. You can then use Excel's
functionality for added analysis and trending.
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When looking at clinical indicators, hospitals
can drill down to the chart number level to find
cases that contribute to indicator values.
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Both WHIC and WERS provide access to HAA
indicator values. What is the difference?
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For more information contact
Where to look for help
The source for WHIC software, installation
instructions, software support documentation
the web user forum
www.hospitalreport.ca
HAA documentation and primers the source for
information about HAA indicators.
www.jppc.org
Source for HAPS information.
www.mohltchb.com/
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For more information contact
The Web User Forum for WHIC
A moderated, peer-helper forum for exchanging
hints, tips, tricks, problem fixes, etc. about
WHIC. We encourage you to register as a member,
and post questions of your own, and offer answers
to questions other hospitals have posted. Access
from our website. (Access our Software WHIC
Tool User Forum
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For more information contact
There is a fully functional tutorial mode in
WHIC, including data you can import. Try it out!
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For more information contact
A quickie live demo
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Some messages we've been sharing based on issues
our test site hospitals told us about
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Hospitals with CCC beds needs to obtain their
historical admission and assessment file from
CIHI before they can calculate CCC
indicators. This issue was identified during the
rollout of the HRRC CCC module. It impacts HAA as
well. The HRRC has worked with CIHI so that
hospitals can obtain the missing records. Check
our website FAQ section for WHIC if you need
details on how to obtain this file from CIHI.
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DAD files must have a populated CMG field if a
hospital wishes to use WHIC. Some hospitals have
DAD files that lack CMG information. This appears
to be a vendor specific issue. All HAA
indicators that select records based on CMG will
fail to calculate unless affected hospitals
remedy this problem.
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Loading data into WHIC can be awkward. Importing
source files into WHIC is time consuming so many
files so many quarters! It can take a couple of
hours for multi-site hospitals. Once done,
however, the process doesn't need to be
repeated. We are aware of the problem and it is
our highest priority to address in the next
version of WHIC.
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In this version of WHIC we have stuffed a Ferrari
engine into something that was never designed for
this much power. We've already identified a
number of challenges this has created. We expect
you'll have many good ideas for us after you try
WHIC. Please share these with us. We look forward
to building a much enhanced version of WHIC
should the MOH renew our project.
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Contacting the WHIC team at the University of
Waterloo Lynda Schertzer Research
Associate [phone] x2131 lschertz_at_uwaterloo.
ca
University of Waterloo
General questions about the Hospital Report
Research Collaborative can be directed to our
offices at the University of Toronto. (416
946-7388)