When should I consider ranking data?

You should rank data when you need to show how individual quantitative values that are associated with a set of categorical subdivisions relate to each other sequentially. And, of course, you may rank this information from either high to low or low to high.

For example:

• HCAHPS scores 1 through 10 are quantitative values.
• Quiet at Night, Medication Communication, Discharge Instructions are categorical subdivisions of the HCAHPS. Additional subdivisions may be by hospital service, medical, surgical, etc. and even hospital floors.

To show how well your institution is performing on these measures you can rank them sequentially within categories from high to low or low to high.

You should rank data if you need to show how it is:

• Greater or Less than
• Larger or Smaller than or
• Equal to other data.

The best graphs to display data values ordered by size in ascending or descending value are:

• Vertical Bar Graph
• Horizontal Bar Graph
• Vertical Dot Plot
• Horizontal Dot Plot