Thoughts on quality-control systems: a laboratorian's perspective.
State-of-the-art prospective quality-control systems entail the use of medically relevant, analyte-specific quality control limits. With analyte-specific limits broader than those generally used in the clinical laboratory, there will be fewer false rejections, fewer unnecessary reanalyses, and shorter delays in run reporting. If the analyte-specific limits are narrower than those used in the laboratory, more errors will be detected, but the user is at risk of identifying errors over which s/he and the manufacturer have little control. The use of various patient data quality-control algorithms is described. Conservatism is stressed in adopting manufacturers' guidelines for surrogate, nondestructive quality-control testing. A simple, optimized approach is suggested for the systematic retrospective review of proficiency data. Finally, an approach is presented for converting from older, previously accepted quality control procedures to more efficient analyte-specific quality control.
Cembrowski
G S
GS
GSC Consulting, Edina, MN 55424, USA. cembr001@gold.tc.umn.edu
D002624:Chemistry, Clinical / Q000592:standards; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D011786:Quality Control; D012015:Reference Standards; D013223:Statistics as Topic