This online educational activity is a great introduction to QMS for individuals in a clinical laboratory, including healthcare professionals working as medical laboratory staff in non-waived diagnostic laboratories, technical consultants, quality managers, supervisors, and testing personnel.

Introduction to Quality Management in the Medical Laboratory has been revised and updated to reflect the release of the updated Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) document on which it is based. CLSI GP26-A4, Quality Management System: A Model for Laboratory Services; Approved guideline GP26, 4th edition, is available from CLSI (www.clsi.org).

This course introduces the concept of Quality Management Systems and the ever-increasing focus on quality in healthcare. It describes a plan for managing the quality of your laboratory’s test results and services using the Quality System Essentials (QSEs), and introduces you to the individual courses that offer more detailed information on each QSE. The course includes links to additional resources.

This course has been approved for P.A.C.E.® credit.

At the end of this course, you will be able to:
• Distinguish between quality control, quality assurance, and quality management
• Categorize the management elements of quality into 12 Quality System Essentials (QSEs)
• Summarize the laboratory’s path of workflow
• Illustrate the quality system model