State-of-the-art Approach to Goal Setting.
Four external quality assurance programs combined their data to calculate the minimum acceptable quality specifications for laboratory testing. Other sources of quality specifications may be too stringent for the current market, or too lenient given the clinical demands on the test result, but these state-of-the-art goals may be practical and useful. Two main approaches were used: (1) defining the 95% percentile and comparing with other quality specifications, and (2) using an iterative approach to increase the quality specification until 90% of laboratories could achieve 75% of their results within the specification. 72 out of 82 analytes followed procedure 2.
Comité de Programas Externos de la Calidad, Spanish Society of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (SEQC), Barcelona, Padilla 323-325 BCN 08025, Spain. Electronic address: asalasrooms@gmail.com.
Angel
A
Salas
Comité de Programas Externos de la Calidad, Spanish Society of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (SEQC), Barcelona, Padilla 323-325 BCN 08025, Spain.
Carmen
C
Ricós
Comité de Calidad, Gestión, Seguridad y Evidencia, Spanish Association of Medical Biopathology-Laboratory Medicine (AEBM-LM), Madrid, Condado de Treviño 2, portal 2, local 1, Madrid 28033, Spain.
Enrique
E
Prada
Comité de Programas Externos de la Calidad, Spanish Society of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (SEQC), Barcelona, Padilla 323-325 BCN 08025, Spain.
Francisco
F
Ramón
Programa de Supervisión Externa de la Calidad y Comisión de Garantía de Calidad del Laboratorio Clínico, Spanish Association of Pharmaceutical Analists (AEFA), Madrid, Modesto Lafuente 3, Madrid 28010, Spain.
Jorge
J
Morancho
Comité de Estandarización, Spanish Society of Hematology and Hemotherapy (SEHH), Madrid, Fortuny 51, local 5, Madrid 28010, Spain.
Josep M
JM
Jou
Programa de Supervisión Externa de la Calidad y Comisión de Garantía de Calidad del Laboratorio Clínico, Spanish Association of Pharmaceutical Analists (AEFA), Madrid, Modesto Lafuente 3, Madrid 28010, Spain.
Raquel
R
Blazquez
D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011786:Quality Control
Analytes; Laboratory testing; Quality assurance; Quality specification