Posted by Sten Westgard, MS [with apologies in advance*]

Take the "Low QC" Quiz to see if your laboratory is suffering from this new condition...

• Do you have a decrease in your desire to QC?
• Do you have a general lack of energy at work caused by QC?
• Have you noticed a decrease in your enjoyment of life, possibly due to QC?
• Are you sad and/or grumpy about QC?
• Has there been a recent deterioration in your ability to trouble-shoot QC?

Answers, after the jump...

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

We've all heard the infamous quote now over a decade and a half old: that US hospitals kill between roughly 40,000 and 90,000 patients each year. This was an estimate courtesy of the Institute of Medicine report "To Err Is Human" which made the dire performance of hospitals knowledge that even the general public could understand.

But more recently, studies have been tracking the adverse event rates much more closely. A recent NEJM paper followed four conditions from 2005 to 2011.

Of these four conditions, which do you think has the best Sigma performance when it comes to the occurrence of adverse events?

A. Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI)

B. Congestive Heart Failure

C. Pneumonia

D. (other) Conditions Requiring Surgery

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

On August 16th of this year, CMS issued a new memo about IQCPs. If you recall, IQCP stands for  Individualized Quality Control Plan, and it's part of the new Risk QC being proposed by CMS as a replacement for EQC. The CLSI guideline EP23, which came out about two years ago, laid out the broad outlines of this new policy, but we have been waiting for the government regulations to spell out the specifics of implementation and interpretation.

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

In a recent issue of CCLM, an interesting opinion paper reported on a pilot study of the quality of UK laboratories.

Given 5,812 QC data points on 5 different platforms in 9 different laboratories measured over 6 months, and a quality goal of 7.0%  how many of those laboratories do you think achieved 5-Sigma quality?

• 100%
• 75%
• 50%
• 25%
• less than 25%

The answer, after the jump...

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

A lot of interesting studies coming out this month, unfortunately none of them with encouraging news about the US healthcare system.

The latest, from Sunil Eappen, MD, Atul Gawande, MD et al, Relationship Between Occurence of Surgical Complications and Hospital Finances, JAMA, April 17, 2013, Vol. 309, No. 15 1599-1606

Take a guess: do US hospitals make more money when things go wrong, or less?

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Posted by Sten Westgard, MLO

In the November 2012 MLO magazine there is an intriguing article by Roy Midyett, a hematology supervisor, titled "Empty QC"

Here's how Mr. Midyett defines "Empty QC":

"Empty QC is any nominal QC that does not give techs performing the test any more confidence than they would have without the QC, and has by logic or experience, no influence on the reporting of the test."

Is Mr. Midyett correct? Have our QC procedures become meaningless gestures? More after the jump.

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

So here's a Normalized Method Decision chart for a cholesterol method.

Which method would you choose?

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

I just wanted to share some pictures of a trip taken back in late April.

The Asian Society of Continuing Medical Education was kind enough to invite me to present in a workshop titled "Assuring Quality, Standardization, and Efficiency in the Laboratory 2012"  In Delhi and Mumbai.

Group picture, Mumbai

More pictures, after the jump.

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Here's a range of statistics describing the performance of a glucose method. Try to pick: Which one has acceptable performance?

1. method with combined uncertainty 3.69%
2. method with combined uncertainty 6.79%
3. method with expanded uncertainty 7.38%
4. method with expanded uncertainty 13.58%
5. method with 3.78 Sigma

Which method would you pick?

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Recently, the journal In Vitro Diagnostics Global News a publication of CGI KK and in association with CAP Today, has begun publishing a series of translations of Westgard articles into Japanese:

The title of the series is Think QC Again, an important message regardless of language or country.

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Heads up. There's a new abbreviation in town: IQCP

Can you guess what IQCP means?

1. Information Quality Certified Professional
2. Individualized Quality Control Plan
3. Intelligent Quality Control Plan
4. Incoherent Quality Control Plan
5. Ill-conceived Quality Control Plan

The answer, after the jump...