Internal quality assurance in a clinical virology laboratory. I. Internal quality assessment.

Gray, J J; Wreghitt, Tim; Mckee, Thomas Alexander; McIntyre, P; Roth, C E; Smith, D J; Sutehall, G; Higgins, George M.; Geraghty, Ruth; Whetstone, R

doi:10.1136/jcp.48.2.168

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Quality assurance procedures include quality assessments (external or internal), quality controls (QC) (negative, positive, internal controls), equipment monitoring, and audits. [3][4][5] There are various methods for monitoring QC values which may aid in the evaluation of uncertainty of test results. The type of evaluation done will depend on whether the test provides a quantitative or qualitative result.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simplified approach to uncertainty of measurement in the clinical virology laboratory

Newman

Tshisevhe

2018

Reviews in Medical Virology

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Medical laboratories are required to ensure the quality of their diagnostic results. Quality assurance procedures include quality assessments (internal and external), quality controls (negative, positive, or internal controls), equipment monitoring, and audits. Quality control data may be used to evaluate the uncertainty of measurement. All clinical virology laboratories require a standard operating procedure detailing their consideration of uncertainty of measurement, as this parameter may impact on the overall quality of diagnostic results as well as the clinical interpretation thereof. This review aims to provide a simplified approach to the concept of uncertainty of measurement, specific for clinical virology laboratories.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simplified approach to uncertainty of measurement in the clinical virology laboratory

Newman

Tshisevhe

2018

Reviews in Medical Virology

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“…The potential of this type of procedures is recognized by reference organizations such as the Eurachem and the Standard Unit, Microbiology Services of Public Health England, which recommend them to assess internally the overall reproducibility of samples testing and handling [29,30]. However, there is very few original publications in clinical microbiology setting supporting these recommendations, the only ones being the studies conducted in Cambridge in the nineties by Constantine et al [31] and Gray et al [32]. The authors concluded then that their works showed the capacity of this system to detect error, highlighted point of improvements and produced relevant data on the reproducibility of their results and the overall quality of their laboratories [31][32][33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internal quality assurance in diagnostic microbiology: A simple approach for insightful data

2017

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Given the importance of microbiology results on patient care, high quality standards are expected. Internal quality assurance (IQA) could mitigate the limitations of internal quality control, competency assessment and external quality assurance, adding a longitudinal insight, including pre- and post-analytical steps. Here, we implemented an IQA program in our clinical microbiology facilities with blind resubmission of routine samples during 22 months. One-hundred-and-twenty-one out of 123 (98.4%) serological analyses and 112 out of 122 (91.8%) molecular analyses were concordant. Among the discordances in molecular biology analyses, 6 results were low positive samples that turned out negative, likely due to stochastic repartition of nucleic acids. Moreover, one identified retranscription error led us to implement automated results transmission from the Applied Biosystems instruments to the laboratory information system (LIS). Regarding Gram stain microscopy, 560 out of 745 (75.2%) of compared parameters were concordant. As many as 67 out of 84 (79.8%) pairs of culture results were similar, including 16 sterile pairs, 27 having identical identification or description and semi-quantification and 24 only showing variations in semi-quantification with identical description or identification of colonies. Seventeen pairs had diverging identification or description of colonies. Culture was twice only done for one member of the pairs. Regarding antibiotic susceptibility testing, a major discrepancy was observed in 5 out of 48 results (10.4%). In conclusion, serological tests were highly reproducible. Molecular diagnosis also revealed to be robust except when the amounts of nucleic acids present in the sample were close to the limits of detection. Conventional microbiology was less robust with major discrepancies reaching 39.5% of the samples for microscopy. Similarly, culture and antibiotic susceptibility testing were prone to discrepancies. This work was ground for reconsidering multiples aspects of our practices and demonstrates the importance of IQA to complete the other quality management procedures.

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Effect of staff attitudes on quality in clinical microbiology services

Pitt

Sands

2002

British Journal of Biomedical Science

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Technical quality of the work of clinical pathology laboratories is monitored regularly by both internal and external sources. Among the factors that might affect quality, laboratory staff attitudes are rarely considered. In this study, the psychological concepts of 'job satisfaction' and 'climate' are measured among microbiology biomedical scientists in the United Kingdom. A self-report questionnaire was developed and distributed (between November 1998 and February 1999) to biomedical scientists in 161 microbiology laboratories throughout the UK From 2415 questionnaires distributed, 931 replies were received--a response rate of 39%. A separate set of questions covering customer service and participation in internal and external quality assurance schemes was sent to laboratory managers. Biomedical scientists reported lower job satisfaction than did medical technologists in a previous study in the USA. Perception of climate was influenced by several demographic factors, the most important of which being the size of the laboratory. Optimal number of staff in a department was found to be less than 30. Aggregation of climate scores from members of the same department showed that a positive laboratory climate was important for good performance in internal and external measures of technical quality. For the best service, laboratory climate must be supported by a staff perception that the department is committed to enhancing quality--a climate for laboratory quality.

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Internal quality assurance in a clinical virology laboratory. I. Internal quality assessment.

Cited by 7 publications

References 7 publications

Simplified approach to uncertainty of measurement in the clinical virology laboratory

Simplified approach to uncertainty of measurement in the clinical virology laboratory

Internal quality assurance in diagnostic microbiology: A simple approach for insightful data

Effect of staff attitudes on quality in clinical microbiology services

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