Guest Essay
Dr. Freeman and Alison Farr talk more about their 2008 papers on veterinary quality requirements and the Sigma performance metrics they calculated for their laboratory.
What does the word "Quality" mean, anyway? Is it an absolute or relative term? Jerry Ehrmeyer, a frequent speaker at AACC conventions, discusses what "quality" really means, using everyday examples from the quality of wine to the quality of maps.
Dr. R. Neill Carey shows how to derive quality requirements for immunoassays from the proficiency testing criteria. Theophylline, cortisol, thyroxine, and folate examples are illustrated.
Dr. Art Eggert discusses the evolution of clinical laboratory utilization. Do you remember back when laboratories used to be a profit center instead of a cost center? Dr. Eggert traces the history of laboratory testing and its costs, and discusses how to optimize laboratory testing benefits while minimizing the expense.
Dr. Robert Burnett describes the need to focus our future thinking on defect rates to better manage the analytical quality of laboratory tests. In the midst of our preoccupation with the profound changes that are taking place in health care delivery in general, and laboratory medicine in particular, it might be of some comfort to realize that there are some fundamental things that have remained the same. Two management objectives that have not changed in organizations, including clinical laboratories, are the need for high quality and the need for high productivity.