QUALITY ASSESSMENT/PATIENT MANAGEMENT FOR THE P.O.L.
Introduction - To insure the reliability of test results, the Physician Office Laboratory (POL) like any other licensed laboratory, must establish a written quality assessment (QA) program. This program is designed to monitor and evaluate the ongoing and overall quality of the total testing process.
Documentation of facility QA protocol is a requirement of the of CLIA-88 regulations.
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Quality assessment (QA) is the process of assuring that all testing services (pre-analytic, analytic, post-analytic) involved in the delivery of patient care have been performed in an appropriate manner. In an office setting the physician is responsible for the
accuracy of the information the laboratory produces. Patient management decisions will be made based on the interpretation of the test results. QA is important in any laboratory setting and it is possibly more important in the office laboratory where the people performing the tests often have minimal technical training.
Sources of potential laboratory errors are numerous. QA protocols make it possible to identify systemic sources of error
that can develop in the testing process. The following program will help the POL achieve the highest level
of testing precision and accuracy, and validate the results of all tests.
Quality Assessment Policy:
The following QA plan covers QA policies followed in this facility. Charts to document the effectiveness of these policies can be found at end of this chapter and throughout the manual.✓All employees will read and follow QA policies.
✓The laboratory will develop a schedule for monitoring QA activities.
✓All quality assessment activities and meetings will be documented and kept in the laboratory.
✓The facility will review and revise QA policies as needed or annually.
✓QA problems that have been identified, will be corrected and new policies will be developed to prevent the problem in the future.
✓The laboratory will re-review the effectiveness of the new policies made to the QA plan.