Basic Planning for Quality
2000, 272 pages
$60
Author:
James O. Westgard, Ph.D.
Contents:
- 15 Chapters
- 4 appendices
- Reference list
- Online Reference list
- Glossary
- Self-assessment questions and answers
- 20+ example applications
- Access to special online software
Soon to be available as an online course.
|
Basic Planning for Quality
A new manual from Westgard QC
Basic Planning for
Quality is
a much-needed primer on the management of quality control in
the laboratory. For lab managers and directors, quality specialists,
and clinical laboratory scientists who are looking for a saner
way to manage quality in their labs, this manual will provide
the missing ingredient – an objective way to manage your
testing processes to achieve the quality needed for patient care
while accounting for the actual performance of the methods in
your laboratory.
- Establish a practical
process for managing quality in your laboratory!
- Plan your quality
logically, efficiently, and quickly!
- Move beyond compliance
with JCAHO, CLIA, NCCLS, and other rules!
- Optimize your QC to
minimize waste and maximize performance!
- Select the best
control rules for your tests!
Basic Planning for
Quality makes
use of over 65 illustrations, graphs and tables, explains more
than two dozen applications in detail, covers CLIA, JCAHO, NCCLS
and other requirements, includes appendices on CLIA requirements,
European Biologic Goals, and provides a database of quality recommendations
for over 300 analytes.
See
the Learning Objectives!
View
the Table of Contents!
Read
the Foreword!
Order
the manual now! |
Basic Planning for Quality: Training in Analytical Quality
Management for Healthcare Laboratories
Review by Stephen E. Kahn, PhD, DABCC and Amy Haara, MBA,
MPA Maywood, Ill
Basic Planning for Quality: Training in Analytical Quality
Management for Healthcare Laboratories provides a practical
introduction to quality management and planning with an emphasis
on key quality control concepts and issues in the health care
laboratory. This is a recent text from an array of educational
tools created by Dr James Westgard, an internationally renowned
leader in the development and application of quality management
principles in health care. More than 15 years ago, Dr Westgard's
name became linked to clinical laboratory quality control through
his successful efforts to apply multiple quality control rules
("multirules") to clinical laboratory processes. In
part through the publisher of this text, Westgard QC, Inc, Dr
Westgard has continued to create textbooks such as this product
as well as educational programs, software products, and Web-based
learning courses. These valuable tools have been used worldwide
to facilitate the education of many individuals within health
care, and specifically the clinical laboratory, on state-of-the-art
practical applications of quality management principles to health
care processes.
This book's subtitle identifies directly the nature of the
practical information conveyed in the text as well as the audience
of readers the book targets. In a clear, concise and "reader-friendly"
manner, the author effectively guides the reader through the
key steps in quality planning that are relevant to the health
care laboratory setting. In achieving this goal, Dr Westgard
ensures that the legislative, regulatory, and accreditation body
aspects of health care laboratory quality planning and management
are also addressed.
This text would most benefit readers who already have some
basic knowledge of quality control principles in the health care
laboratory. The first 8 chapters systematically develop key issues
and considerations in the quality planning process. Each of these
chapters generally builds on those that preceded it, and the
ninth chapter summarizes and reviews previous major concepts
and issues. The next 4 chapters illustrate practical applications
to the areas of automated chemistry, blood gas, immunoassay,
and coagulation quality planning. The final 2 chapters of this
15-chapter text incorporate frequently raised concerns or questions
on quality planning and quality control with the author's useful
insights and answers to them. Each chapter concludes with a short
list of self-assessment questions, and the answers are available
at the end of the text.
As Dr Westgard notes, those who are "eager to learn practical
applications and who are more concerned with how to do quality
planning than the theory and background" can actually begin
with the ninth chapter, briefly review 2 earlier specific chapters
on key steps in the quality planning process, and, after studying
an application chapter, move on to using the principles for their
own applications. The text's appendices summarize recommendations
for quality requirements and desirable performance specifications
on most routine laboratory procedures; these recommendations
are compiled from several key sources, such as the Clinical Laboratory
Improvement Amendment of 1988 (CLIA'88) regulations. There is
also an appendix addressing financial implications of quality
planning. Finally, the text also provides readers with information
and guidance to access online quality planning tools available
on the Internet.
As health care continues to evolve through a challenging period
of regulatory proliferation and financial constraints, it has
become increasingly difficult, though no less critical, to ensure
quality in laboratory testing. This recommended text is a valuable
and worthwhile addition to the library of any health care laboratorian
who is responsible for quality planning. It should greatly benefit
those interested in enhancing their skills in the development
and application of practical quality management concepts to the
workplace setting of the health care laboratory.
Reprinted with permission of the Archives of Pathology and
Laboratory Medicine
Reviewed by Les Watkinson
It is obvious to those who study this book that James Westgard
has never taken a course in statistics, and that his ability
to stir up trouble in the laboratory is probably due to his ancestral
lineage that closely relates him to Hagar the Horrible. These
are not my conclusions they are facts clearly stated by Dr Westgard,
and if Dr Westgard is related to Hagar the Horrible then the
book also serves as a family photograph album of the Westgard
ancestors.
Basic Planning for Quality is not so much a reference book
but more a study course that also provides access to QC tools
from the Internet. There are 15 chapters which are better described
as lessons, each beginning with a short study plan that includes
the goals for the lesson, specific objectives, material to study
and things to do. Each then concludes with a short list of self-assessment
questions. The book aims to teach the reader how to
- Define the quality required for a test,
- Establish the purchase specifications for imprecision and
inaccuracy for new analytical methods and systems,
- Select QC procedures that maximise quality and minimise cost,
and
- Formulate an overall or total QC strategy that balances statistical
and non-statistical components in a quality system.
For those who cut their QC teeth on Westgard Multi-Rules,
we learn from this book that Westgard Rules are not OK or rather
that there is more to quality control than multi-rules and subsets
of multi-rules are often more appropriate. We are introduced
to OPSpecs charts that are used to plan the quality of a laboratory
test and direct us to which rules are the more appropriate for
each method. Individual chapters cover the planning of quality
for, chemistry methods, blood gas methods, immunoassays methods
and coagulation methods. The final appendix to the book deals
with the financial impact of quality planning and strong cases
are made that show the implementation of a quality planning process
can actually save money.
As one would expect from a book that is directed towards USA
laboratories it bases the implementation of a quality planning
process on the regulations, standards and practices recommended
by the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Health Care Organisations
(JCAHO), Clinical laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA-88)
and the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards
(NCCLS). However if your laboratory is not required to meet CLIA
acceptability and/or if you prefer quality requirements based
on biological variability, then you will find that the quality
planning process works with any total error requirement, and
there is a list of desired specifications for total error, imprecision
and bias derived from biological variation, for the reader to
use.
For anyone who wants to learn the practical applications of
planning for quality it is a book of many parts. It is a reference
book, it is a planning manual, it is a study course and it gives
access to Dr Westgard's website and the world of quality.
Maybe by working through this book Lucky Eddy will learn to understand
Hagar the Horrible and hopefully put into practice what he has
learnt. Who knows he may also get a promotion.
ISBN 1-886958-13-1
Published by Westgard QC, Inc., 7614 Gray Fox Trail, Madison,
WI 53717, USA