Step 4: Determine Sample Size
It is relatively rare to do a manual audit on all charts meeting your inclusion criteria--it’s usually too many to feasibly complete. That’s where sampling comes in.
For an informal or “quick and dirty” audit, you may arbitrarily choose a sample size. The minimum is usually 10 or 20 records. A common rule of thumb is to try for 10% of the eligible charts.
If you want to track a measure over time, or if you want your results to be statistically valid, choosing a sample size is critical. If the sample is too small, the random variability will be too large, and the results will be very limited in their applicability.
Examples
Click on one of the images to view the example
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