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Nothing but the Truth Manual

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The Collected Wisdom and Advice of an International Expert on laboratory quality management.

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2004, 258 pages, 6" x 9" perfect bound
ISBN 1-886958-21-1

Note: Limited edition. Less than 6 copies remain in print. This will come with an autograph by one of the Westgards and will include the set of 3 Westgard thumb drives.

COLLECTED ESSAYS BY JAMES O. WESTGARD, PHD, FACB

with a Foreword by Callum Fraser, International Expert on Biologic Variation

  • 25 Chapters
  • 5 commentaries on Truth, QC, Goals, Standards, and Managment
  • Foreword by Callum Fraser, noted expert on Biologic Variation
  • Preface and Suggestions on use of the book
  • Appendix on the use of OPSpecs Charts as essential QC tools

The Collected Wisdom and Advice of an International Expert on laboratory quality management

With the help of Dilbert cartoons, Dr. James O. Westgard, Ph.D., outspoken advocate for better quality in healthcare laboratories and creator of the "Westgard Rules", presents a collection of essential writings on quality. These essays, some of them originally published on Westgard Web, cover topics ranging from Six Sigma to Diabetes, Cholesterol to hs-CRP, Enron to Firestone, NCEP to the CLIA Final Rule, ISO uncertainty to Evidence-Based Medicine. Together, they provide you with a broad and in-depth analysis and perspective on current quality management practices and the need for improvements.

A No-Holds Barred Look at the State of Quality in Healthcare Laboratories

Taken together, these essays fire a broadside at the conventional wisdom about the state of quality in laboratory testing today. This is a book that must be read by laboratory directors and manager, industry executives and consultants, government regulators and surveyors, and professional accreditors and inspectors.

Learn the dirty little secrets about the lack of quality in laboratory testing today...

  • Why scientific studies may be biased by unscientific assumptions about the performance and stability of laboratory testing processes.
  • How professional standards and practice guidelines are setting the wrong goals for quality - and don't know it
  • Why "Electronic QC" and "Equivalent QC" endanger the quality of patient testing
  • How CLIA has failed to assure the quality of laboratory testing
  • Why current management practices may be bad for healthcare organizations
  • And much much more...

Nothing but the Truth about Quality is the real book on quality management in the healthcare laboratory. Bringing these issues to life and into your life - it goes beyond the formal scientific papers and the glossy instrument brochures to illustrate the importance of quality in everday issues, especially healthcare.

Finally, you can get the truth about quality.

Table of Contents
  
The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth 1
1. A Truth Standard for Quality 3
2. Quintiles and Quality 11
3. Why not Evidence-Based Method Specifications? 19
4. Cooking the Books: Is it happening in lab error budgets? 29
5. Think Straight, Talk Straight 37
Nothing but the Truth about Quality Goals 43
6. Quality Goals, Requirements and Specifications 45
7. Quality by Design 61
8. Quality Goals and Equivalent Quality Testing 69
9. Errors in Reasoning about Laboratory Errors 77
10. JCAHO Patient Safety Goals 85
Nothing but the Truth about Quality Control 93
11. Good Data Wanted, Bad Data Need Not Apply! 95
12. Autoverification: Taking QC to the Next Level - up or down? 103
13. "Electronic QC" and the Total Testing Process 111
14. Lies, Damn Lies, and "Equivalent QC" 121
15. Doing the Right QC 127
Nothing but the Truth about Quality Standards and Regulations 143
16. Enron and Quality - When Opposites Detract 145
17. CLIA Postponed and postponed and postponed and postponed 155
18. ISO Says So: Recommendations for Validation of User QC 163
19. To be Uncertain or in Error? That is the Question 171
20. Quality-Less Compliance 177
Nothing bu the Truth about Quality Management 185
21. Quality in the New Millenium 187
22. Quality is Job 1 when the Rubber meets the Road 197
23. It's not Rocket Science: Lessons from the Shuttle Disasters 205
24. Medical Errors - Complexity and its Solutions 215
25. Truth, just Truth 223
Appendix 1: Primer on OPSpecs Charts 233
Postscript: It's an Honor 249

 

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