As we prepare for our Cutting Your QC webinar, we've gotten nearly two thousand registrations, along with a lot of questions.
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_F5IRlqySRR6eRcrm9Zz9mQ
The most common question we're getting is, What does "Cut your QC" mean?
I believe this comes from a perspective of many labs, that QC cannot be reduced any further, since a majority of those labs are already doing the minimum QC, running only once a day. Reducing QC less than that, from a CLIA and CAP perspective, is not an option.
Cutting your QC can mean many things, including
- the frequency of running QC, but rules being used in QC,
- the false rejection caused by those QC rules,
- the repeating of controls
- the running of new controls,
- more repeating of controls
- the time and effort spent troubleshooting out-of-control runs,
- the delays in reporting results due to troubleshooting.
- the financial costs of running QC,
- the staff time spent on QC and repeating and troubleshooting and re-establishing control.
But that's just the practice of QC, and there are other dimensions that could also be considered:
- the number of vials required and the storage space that will take up
- the number of lot changes
- the number of tests covered by a single vial
- the dead volume involved with the vial
- the preparation time and effort of preparing the controls (and the mistakes that can happen when they are not properly prepared).
Those are all possible ways to do less work and spend less money, and this list isn't even exhaustive.
For the purposes of the upcoming webinar, our focus will be on using fewer QC rules with reduced false rejection. It could also mean reducing from 3 levels down to 2. These are changes that are easier to implement for a single laboratory. No new controls need to be purchased. No new major expenses need to be contemplated. Of course, labs are free to explore all angles of savings, the more the better. The simple changes in QC rules will still reduce false rejection and outliers, which will reduce repeats, recals, troubleshooting, and delays to TAT.