American Association for Clinical Chemistry
Improving healthcare through laboratory medicine
Patient-Focused Quality Competence: The QC Gap

QC Image

PATIENT-FOCUSED QUALITY COMPETENCE:
THE QC GAP CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

PROGRAM COURSES

Available for sale: January 1, 2012
Sold Until: December 31, 2012
Program Access Available: January 1, 2012-July 15, 2013

This certificate program is composed of four courses, which can be completed online in 1-2 hours each. It contains 5 lectures with audio, evaluation tools, discussion questions, and a final exam. You can earn 4 continuing education units for completing the entire program. The four courses that make up this certificate program are:

  • Clinical consequences of a Gap between QC in theory and Practice
  • Cause and consequences: QC in Theory
  • Cause and consequences: QC in Practice
  • Where to from here

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of the Patient-Focused Quality Competence certificate program to help participants match quality control practices to patient need. The four courses in this program concentrate on the basics of numerical QC. Participants who complete this certificate program will be able to:

  • Describe how lab results directly impact patient care
  • Relate types of lab errors to their impact on patient care
  • Recognize how good QC practices prevent reporting misleading patient results
  • Determine if you have a QC Gap and test your competency with basic QC theories plus interpretation of QC charts
  • Identify poorly and properly made QC Charts

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The quality of laboratory results has a direct impact on patient care. Participants in this program will learn the very fundamentals of how lab quality control works. Effective QC processes are essential to prevent reporting clinically misleading patient results. Case studies and self-assessment quizzes illustrate clinical consequences of lab error; the importance of measuring Total Error; and how the processes used in your lab impact your ability to detect significant change. Test your own QC Gap with the same QC Gap Poll used in the 2009 Webinar: Laboratory QC: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice.

AACC and AWE-Some Numbers Inc. developed this four-course certificate program as a resource for laboratory professionals who want to understand and improve quality control. The program concentrates on patient-focused quality control plus causes and consequences of a QC Gap.