Levey-Jennings and Westgard Rules short course

NEW! A 45-minute streaming video lecture on QC and the "Westgard Rules" is now included in this course.

The "Westgard Rules" and Levey-Jennings short course is an online training program intended for professionals in Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS).

This is a course designed to give you just the essential details and training about Levey-Jennings Control Charts and the "Westgard Rules." It's a subset of the lessons found in the comprehensive Basic QC Practices course.

You can register and get immediate access to this course at http://www.westgard.org/index.pl?id=23868. If you want to order it through this online store, please allow 1-2 business days for processing.

Participants must pass a final exam (>70%) to receive continuing education credits.

Purpose

This course is intended to provide education and training in quality control (QC) to a broad audience of healthcare practitioners who perform laboratory tests in central laboratories, clinic or outpatient laboratories, and point-of-care settings.

The Levey-Jennings control chart is the workhorse of the laboratory. For healthcare practitioners who perform laboratory tests, it is essential that they understand these tools in order assure the quality of their tests. Control results must be plotted and interpreted using the Levey-Jennings control charts. Critical decisions about in-control and out-of-control results are made on the basis of these charts. Still, many technologist and analysts are confused about the use and interpretation of results on a Levey-Jennings chart.

Multirule QC - often called the "Westgard Rules" - is a commonly used QC procedure in many laboratories. But many technologist and analysts are confused about its use and interpretation.

This course gives the definitive explanations of the Levey-Jennings chart and the "Westgard Rules" (multirule procedure), as well as practical advice on how to use and properly interpret control results on one.

Course Goals

When you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Access internet resources to support continuing education and training in analytical quality management.
• Define the Levey-Jennings chart.
• Construct a Levey-Jennings chart
• Define the different control rules used in multirule QC.
• Interpret control results on a Levey-Jennings chart using multirule QC procedures to determine if patient test results can be reported and, if not, what type of analytical errors are likely occurring in out-of-control runs.

Course materials

Each lesson plan provides a summary of that lesson, specific objectives, links to the course materials that are to be used, a list of things to do, and some questions for self- assessment.

Westgard QC, Inc. copyright 2008