Tagged Quality

It appears that there is still some confusion among laboratory personnel in differentiating QC from QA, and that this uncertainty has been compounded by the introduction and implementation of the...

  The science of Quality Improvement (sometimes referred to as Continuous Quality Improvement or Total Quality Management) has been applied for decades in manufacturing and other industries to reduce...

Experiencing the joy of being healthy plays a central role in modern life. Health improves the quality of our lives and the lives of those we love. I certainly don’t need to explain to you, how advances...

Last week, on September 22nd,  the Institute of Medicine (IOM) announced the publication of its report, Improving Diagnosis in Health, a follow-up to To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm. ...

Preventable laboratory errors occur through all phases of testing process. Unfortunately, 46-68 percent of all laboratory errors occur during the pre-analytics phase of testing due to the complexity and manual...

According to CMS, in 2012 there were 229,815 laboratories in the U.S., of which 150,256 were Certificate of Waiver sites.  Stated another way, this means that some 65% of laboratories in the U.S. do not have...

As a nation, we have invested extensively in striving for quality and patient safety in healthcare. Many of us would agree that the two major reports of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) -To Err is Human:...

Performing Quality Control (QC) gives healthcare professionals confidence that test results obtained on patient specimens are accurate and reliable.  It is designed to detect, reduce, and correct deficiencies...

The healthcare landscape is undergoing dramatic changes: hospitals are consolidating into regional networks with highly specialized medical care performed in core facilities, generalized medical care provided...

Healthcare needs to be safe, effective, efficient, timely, patient-centered and equitable.  Each of these attributes is one of the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Quality Aims, and each describes one component...