Quality Control Flashcards
What is a quality management system
consists of all the processes that affect the quality of laboratory test results
What are the 12 components of a quality management system
- Quality improvement
- Organization and structure
- Personnel management
- Information management
- Occurrence management
- Process control
- Service and satisfaction
- Assessment
- Documents and records management
- Equipment management
- Purchasing and inventory
- Facilities and safety
What is quality assurance
all the activities implemented in a quality system so that quality requirements will be fulfilled and to assure the reliability of test results
What are preanalytical variables of quality assurance
test ordering, patient preparation and identification, specimen collection, transport of the specimen, handling of specimen prior to analysis
What are analytical variables of quality assurance
quality control procedures
What are post analytical variable of quality control
turn around time and reporting of results
What is quality control
the monitoring of a test procedure to ensure that the results are valid, accurate and precise
What is accuracy
reliability, refers to the closeness with which results check with the true value
How is accuracy assessed
- analysis of specimens containing known amounts of a substance and comparing results with the true value
- comparison of results with results from a reference method
- comparison with results obtained by a reference laboratory
What is a reference method
a method that is specific for the analyte and is very accurate, also referred to as gold standard
What is precision
the reproducibility of a method, the closeness with which several repeat results check with each other
How can precision be expressed mathmatically
with standard deviation or coefficient of variation
What is standard deviation
the measure of variability about the mean
What is the coefficient of variation
the expression of the standard deviation as a percentage of the mean
What is a primary standard
a reference material that has a known amount of analyte and is used for calibrating an instrument or preparing standard curves