The Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle describes that 20% of the sources cause 80% of any problem. It is a tool to help remind you to focus on the 20% that matter; which will have the greatest impact if solved.

How do I do it?

1. Decide which problem you want to know more about
2. Starting with the highest problem category plot causes of the problem on the x-axis and the frequency on the y-axis
3. Draw a cumulative percentage line showing the portion of the total that each problem category represents.

Most alerts are derived from a small number of pharmaceutical and therapeutic classes, which shows that improving the rules of certain classes can have a large impact on the system as a whole. By improving only five therapeutic classes one could account for more than 75% of all alerts system wide

If you want to find out more about Pareto visit the QI tools section of the microsite