Re: quality control documentation

From:RSRICHMOND@aol.com

Nancy Adams asks:

>>What information needs to be included on a QA form for special stains? I'm  
working on documentation for CAP inspection. All techs work on the stains as 
they progress, how do we handle tech's initials or is that even necessary? 
how long does documentation get saved?  Does anyone have a form they'd be 
willing to fax (508-548-6861)or attach?  Suggestions?<<

Obviously keeping the Herrn Inschpektors - particularly the CAP - happy is 
most important - but what do people do for REAL QA. In the small labs I do 
locum tenens work in, histotechs never look at a slide under the microscope. 
I've often thought that if I were a pathologist responsible for a histology 
lab, I would want to look at some slides with a senior histotechnologist 
nearly every working day, and take careful notes which it would be somebody's 
job to put into shape for the inspectors. 

The revered name of Edwards Deming has been mentioned on this list, though 
not very recently. If I understand him aright, the idea with such a nea
r-daily review would be to catch problems before they become significant. We 
pathologists tend to pride ourselves on the approach of "The slide's 
horrible, but it's good enough to sign the case out with" and not realize 
that that approach is part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN




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