Quality Assurance / Quality Improvement Practices

Marshfield Labs is committed to providing a high quality laboratory service to all clients. As a result of this commitment, we have developed a program to continuously assess the quality of our laboratory service.

Pre-Analytical Quality

Pre-analytical test requesting processes are monitored in order to help ensure that all tests are accurately entered into the laboratory's computer system. Testing personnel are required to be familiar with specimen requirements and to perform testing only on specimens suitable for the requested test.

Test Accuracy and Precision Assessment

An internal quality control program for each test assesses the reliability of each test result. Additionally, a blind control is regularly performed with all routine tests. This control monitors pre-analytical factors (test requesting, specimen handling), serving as an additional analytical control which helps assess report quality.

We participate in external proficiency testing programs for all tests; as available. This allows us to evaluate both the accuracy and precision of our test performance against that of our peers. An established in-house proficiency program allows our laboratory to evaluate the reliability of test systems for which an external proficiency program is not available.

Report Timeliness and Acceptability

Timeliness can be a critical attribute for the overall acceptability of a laboratory service. The LIS assists technologists in recognizing test results that have the potential of being life threatening for a patient and then notifying the appropriate care giver of the critical result as soon as possible after the result is verified. Expected turnaround time intervals have been defined for all tests and are monitored for acceptability on a daily basis. Clients are notified of major delays. Reports are monitored daily for technical accuracy and for clerical and grammatical errors.

Overall Assessment of Quality

Marshfield Labs encourages customers to express their needs, concerns, or displeasure with our laboratory service. Each concern is reviewed by management and may be referred to a quality improvement team for further study.

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