Designing hospital metrics: visual analytics and process improvement

This paper describes the creation, development, and introduction of two new visual analytic tools documenting a process improvement project within a hospital-based medical system. After situating the project within "Visual Analytics" and the Design of Communication, we show hospital performance in these two activities before and after the introduction and dissemination of the visual tool. The paper argues that visual analytics are rhetorical practices merging data with strategic argumentation. As such, visual analytics used in process improvement activities must be supported with system accountability. The project encourages researchers and practitioners to see value in visual analytics as new forms and rhetorical applications of data mining. At the same time we offer that the relationship between analytics, designing communication, and organizational performance is complicated and nuanced with significant issues beyond information and knowledge transfer.