Quality Control Projects Course Information

Quality Control Projects is a 2-credit course that provides laboratory applications of the principles of Quality Control. Quality Control Basics is a prerequisite course; if not completed already, Quality Control Basics must be taken at the same time as Quality Control Projects.

Quality Control Projects provides real-world experiences investigating laboratory QC practices. The student must have access to a diagnostic testing laboratory that will cooperate in the review and assessment of its ongoing quality control practices. This cooperation involves providing access to QC policies and procedures, routine QC data, corrective action documentation, trouble-shooting reports, proficiency testing reports, and peer-review comparison reports. The laboratory must provide a mentor who will support and participate in the projects.

Dr. James O. Westgard is responsible for developing the contents of this course and serves as one of the course instructors. Dr. Westgard is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, Co-Director of the Graduate Certificate in Laboratory Quality Management, Director of Quality Management Services in the Clinical Laboratories at the University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics, and President of Westgard QC, Inc.

Other faculty and laboratory scientists may also serve as course instructors, particularly when projects involve special areas of laboratory testing where their expertise will be helpful to the students in carrying out the projects they have selected.

Purpose

This course is intended to provide practical experience with statistical QC as implemented in a healthcare laboratory. Statistical QC provides a technique for monitoring the performance of a repetitive process, such as a process for production of laboratory test results. Statistical QC is the backbone of a sound quality program in any service laboratory, assuming the technique is properly implemented and the QC data is properly collected, calculated, and interpreted. This course is intended to help students understand laboratory practices relative to statistical principles and theory.

The student will demonstrate the skills to:

• Review QC protocols and implementation guidelines;
• Assess the suitability of control materials for a specific laboratory application;
• Calculate monthly and cumulative control data and control limits;
• Review corrective action reports;
• Demonstrate the effects of applying different control rules;
• Understand the applications of single-rule and multi-rule QC procedure;
• Identify improvements in QC practices

The student is responsible for arranging a QC project in a laboratory. The participating laboratory is responsible for providing a mentor and giving access to the necessary materials, data, and resources to carry out the projects.

Course materials and project guidelines are available on the Internet.

• A syllabus is provided to identify the project assignments and the points at which materials must be submitted for review and approval.
• Assignments provide detailed guidelines for the steps of the project and the materials that must be submitted.
• Instructional materials for Quality Control Basics are accessible via the Internet through links provided in the lesson plans.

• Each student must find a mentor who is available in the laboratory in which the project is carried out.
• An electronic forum is available for discussion of the steps of the project with other students who are also performing projects.
• The course instructor is available for questions and discussion via e-mail.
• Reports from assignments must be transmitted as Word, Powerpoint, or Excel documents via e-mail for review and feedback from the instructor.
• Five discussions must be scheduled with the course instructor as part of monitoring progress through the assignments.