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Need for Quality Testing and Control
Learning ObjectivesWhat is Quality assurance? Why do we need quality assuarance? Bring in concepts of Quality assurance. List out various quality assurance protocols in NTEP
Quality Assurance (QA) is a systematic process used to determine the quality standards of TB laboratories.
Poor quality diagnosis may results in failure to diagnose TB or unnecessary treatment of non-TB case. Thus an effective QA mechanism is important for reliability of laboratory diagnosis.
QA in National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) consists of:
- Internal Quality Control (QC)
- External Quality Assessment (EQA)
- Continuous Quality Improvement (QI)
QC or Internal Quality Assurance is a systematic internal monitoring of working practices, technical procedures, checking equipment, new lot of reagents, smear preparation, grading etc
EQA is a process to assess laboratory performance by comparing laboratory results with a laboratory in higher tier i.e.Intermediate Reference Laboratory (IRL)/ National Reference Laboratory (NRL) through on-site evaluation, panel testing and random blinded rechecking of slides. Figure 1 depicts an eg of on-site evaluation with roles of various stakeholders and frequency of this activity.
Figure 1: On-site evaluation (RNTCP Laboratory Network Guidelines)
QI is continuous monitoring of laboratory performance, finding non compliance and taking remedial measures to prevent recurrence of problems
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| Question | Answer 1 | Answer 2 | Answer 3 | Answer 4 | Correct answer | Correct explanation | Page id | Part of Pre-test | Part of Post-test |
| Quality Improvement mostly relies on effective on-site evaluation visits? | True | False | 1 | Quality Improvement mostly relies on effective on-site evaluation visits. | Yes | Yes |
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