Evaluating laboratory performance on quality indicators with the six sigma scale.

Context: Laboratory quality indicator data, most often presented and reported as a percentage of variance, may be misleading, inasmuch as variances, and therefore percentages, appear to be low.

Method: Current data from laboratory quality indicators and national data derived from several years of College of American Pathologists Q-Probes studies were normalized to parts-per-million defects, as commonly practiced in the manufacturing and service industries for benchmarking performance.

Results: Laboratory data in parts-per-million defects demonstrated opportunities for significant improvements in laboratory performance across the total testing process.

The quality systems approach.

Health care as an industry is going through an evolution similar to that experienced by manufacturing and other service sectors of the world economy. When competition threatens, the traditional management approach is slash-and-burn to manage costs. This approach affects people, services, and facilities.

ISO 9000 case study: the role of the external consultant.

Background: Increasingly, blood centers worldwide are turning toward the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 9000 Quality System Standards to meet regulatory demands of public authorities, competitive demands within their industry, and cost requirements from their customers.

Case Report: The South Texas Blood and Tissue Center is the first blood center in North America to achieve registration to the ISO 9002 Quality System Standards. The role of the external consultant in initiating the process and as a facilitator during the implementation process is examined.

Quality pays--in every business!

For the past few years, blood banks within and outside of hospitals have been required to develop a documented quality assurance/quality improvement program to comply with regulator guidelines and accreditation standards. Concerns have been raised that the cost of compliance could exceed any plausible return on this investment. Unfortunately, little data exist in blood bank literature or are currently being captured to support or refute this contention.