Live Coverage: Quality Management
Despite being forewarned that such behavior would clearly mark me as a tourist, I cheerfully donned my raincoat this morning for what would be a drizzly day in Seattle.
All the buzz this morning is about the Leica customer appreciation event held last evening, 520 feet above the city, at the top of the Space Needle.
Attendees left the badges and briefcases at their hotels and hopped on buses to the Space Needle in their cocktail party attire for drinks, hors d'œuvres, networking and stunning views.
This morning, Gerald Hoeltge, MD, FCAP, president, The Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, presented the C.F.A. Culling Memorial Lecture, names after Charles Culling, a dynamic figure in histology who was so dedicated to the profession, he was named professor and often called "Dr. Culling," despite his lack of degree.
Dr. Hoeltge presented "Quality Management in a Changing World," discussing both quality documents ISO15189, which offers requirements for quality and competency (a "what" document, according to Dr. Hoeltge, and CLSI's GP26-A4, which offers a model for laboratory services, and is what Dr. Hoeltge called a "how" document).
Dr. Hoeltge discussed surveying total analytical error, which is the sum of all the aspects of histotechnology that could affect the accuracy of results, and used the example of shipping strawberries as an anaology for quality control.
A key factor in adding quality to your laboratory is that it will not cost more, Dr. Hoeltge stressed. "If you engineer quality into what you do, your costs are going to go down and your patients will benefit," he said.