Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
I had the pleasure of taking part (albeit remotely) in the Quality at the Crossroads conference in Alexandria, Egypt.
As part of my session, we took questions from the audience, and I thought I would share a few of them with you, as well as a few of the "wrinkles" that labs in Egypt experience that we in the US do not. So here are the questions:
- How frequently should I measure Total Error and Measurement Uncertainty?
- Can I resort to comparing my EQA result to allowable bias when EQA result is violated and declared incorrect due to tight SD of comparator group?
- When using a new manufacturer’s QC, we should establish our own mean and CV, but it would result in tight CV and shift after 20 days. What are the recommendations for this? Is it better to wait more days to establish CV?
Some answers, after the jump...
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
The IATA (International Air Transport Association), whose 260 member airlines comprise 83% of global air travel, released their statistics on 2015 airline safety.
Can you guess how safe it is to travel? What was the global jet accident rate?
- 0.32 per million flights
- 0.22 per million flights
- 0.12 per million flights
- 0 per million flights
The answer, after the jump...
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
A recent op-ed in the New York Times by Dr. Robert Wachter as well as an interview with Don Berwick in HealthLeaders Media broached a taboo topic: is healthcare measuring too much?
'[T]he measurement fad has spun out of control. There are so many different hospital ratings that more than 1,600 medical centers can now lay claim to being included on a “top 100,” “honor roll,” grade “A” or “best” hospitals list. Burnout rates for doctors top 50 percent, far higher than other professions. A 2013 study found that the electronic health record was a dominant culprit. Another 2013 study found that emergency room doctors clicked a mouse 4,000 times during a 10-hour shift. The computer systems have become the dark force behind quality measures.'
How Measurement Fails Doctors and Teachers, New York Times, January 16, 2016
As the global debate over establishing the best error models and performance specifications rages, laboratories are probably asking themselves the same questions that the doctors are asking: how many metrics are too much?
A possible answer, or at least some more questions, after the jump...
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Can you guess just how bad US healthcare is at making the right diagnosis?
Is the error rate in the US related to diagnosis
- 5%?
- 10%?
- 6 to 17%?
- all of the above?
The answer, after the jump...
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Another shoe has dropped in the regulatory world. Recently, CDC/CMS issued their "how-to" guide for IQCPs, CAP dropped their checklist for IQCPs, and now the other major deemed accreditor has put out their IQCP guidelines: The Joint Commission.
So what is JCI doing about IQCPs? Join us after the jump
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
We knew that the accreditation agencies needed to develop their own policies to handle the new CMS IQCP regulations. CAP gets the prize for being first out of the gate with some practical steps, as well retaining some safeguards for quality.
IQCP, if it's not already burned into your head, stands for Individualized Quality Control Plan, and this is supposed to be the replacement for the EQC policies which have been in place for several years. The EQC policies are being replaced, you may recall, because they are scientifically untenable. It was hoped that IQCP was going to be more scientifically robust. That remains to be seen. CAP is attempting to assure that it will implement the CMS IQCP regulations but also provide a higher level of quality assurance than that low bar.
More after the jump.
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
A recent news investigation produced a litany of laboratory errors. Can you guess which of these lab errors actually happened?
- a blood screening test fails to identify a critical blood disorder in a pregnant woman. Her child dies 3 weeks after being born
- an HIV test falsely identifies a husband as HIV positive. The couple separates, the wife unwilling to trust the husband anymore.
- a paternity test sample gets switched: a father is falsely told that his daughter is not his biological child. The family splits up. Nearly 4 years later, the laboratory contacts him and tells him he was the father. The father-daughter bond remains broken.
The answer, after the jump.
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Diagnostic errors are one of the "new" hot topics in the healthcare field. A new study from British Medical Journal of Quality and Safety has a chilling estimate of just how common diagnostic errors are occurring in outpatient settings.
So what's your guess? How often in the US are diagnostic errors being made in outpatient settings?
- about 1 in 5 visits
- about 1 in 10 visits
- about 1 in 20 visits
- about 1 in 50 visits
- about 1 in 100 visits
The study's conclusion, after the jump...
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