Most medical technologists and technicians, responsible for outputting test results as quickly and reliably as possible, hate it when their smooth flow of work is abruptly interrupted by an out-of-control QC rule flag. Suddenly they are faced with delayed reports, the prospect of a complicated technical investigation, and a litany of questions they must ask themselves, such as:
- “Is the out-of-control condition real?”
- “Do I really have a problem with the analytical system?”
- “If I do have a problem, when did it start and how many patient samples are affected?”
- “What should I do first?”
- “What should I do next?”
The laboratory would have much less of a conundrum if it were using a new QC rule proposed in a 2012 Clinical Chemistry article.1 This rule allows, as part of its process control, the possibility of a second set of QC measurements when the first results are inconclusive.
Read more: Resolving QC Failures
Source: mlo-online
