Training in Statistical Quality Control for Medical Laboratories. Thousands of laboratory professionals have made the Basic QC Practices their standard reference on laboratory quality control.

In the third edition, Dr. James O. Westgard and colleagues updated and expanded their coverage:

* Updated coverage of CLIA, CAP, JC requirements
* New chapters on Emerging Regulatory trends: Equivalent Quality Control, Evaluation Protocols, and Risk Assessment
* Comprehensive discussions of the Total Testing Process: including Pre-Analytical Quality and Post-Analytical Quality
* Added sections on QC as it is applied in molecular diagnostics, virology, genetics, and cancer markers
* Exclusive access to online content that supplements and tests your knowledge of the material

Now more than ever, Basic QC Practices is the gold standard for learning Quality Control: a concise and comprehensive introduction to the backbone of the laboratory -- statistical quality control. For healthcare pratictioners who want to implement and operate valid QC procedures, this manual is an essential reference.

CONTENTS:

1. What is Quality Management 1
Introduction to Quality and Quality Management 3
2. What's the idea behind Statistical Quality Control? 15
QC - The Idea 17
3. How do you plot and interpret control results on a Levey-Jennings chart? 27
QC - The Levey-Jennings control chart 29
4. How often should controls be run? 49
QC - The Frequency of Controls 51
5. How do you QC the Total Testing Process? 59
QC - The Need for a Plan for the Total Testing Process 61
6. How do you interpret control data using a multirule QC procedure? 71
QC - The 'Westgard Rules' 73
7. How do you interpret multilevel QC data? 87
QC - The Multirule and Multilevel Interpretation 89
8. How do you solve out-of-control problems? 107
QC - The Out-of-Control Problem 109
9. What documentation and QC records are required? 121
QC - The Records 123
10. How do you assure the Quality of Quality Control? 129
QC - Doing the Right Thing Right 131
11. What are the minimum requirements for QC? 139
QC - The Regulations 141
12. What are control materials and what characteristics are important? 159
QC - The Materials 161
Medical Decision Levels 170
13. What calculations do you have to perform? 175
QC - The Calculations 177
14. What is external quality assessment? 195
QC - Exernal Quality Assessment 197
15. What are the chances of run rejection? 213
QC - Rejection Characteristics and Power Curves 215
16. How do you select the Right QC? 229
The Sigma-metric QC Selection Tool 231
17. What's wrong with Equivalent QC? 249
Equivocal Quality Testing 251
18. What's the Right Quality System? 267
Laboratory Analytical QC Plans and Quality Systems 269
19. What about QC for other tests? 287
QC Practices for Molecular Testing 289
20. What about pre- and post-analytical quality? 307
QC 'Outside the box': Pre-analytical and Post-analytical Quality Control Strategies 311
21. How do you do the Right QC Right? 327
Quality Conclusions: 10 Corrective Actions,
10 Quality Improvements, and 10 Steps you can take now 329
Appendix 1: CLIA'88 Quality Requirements 345
Index