Safeguarding the Accuracy of Real-Time Veterinary Diagnostics with Quality Control
Reliable diagnostic technology is essential for delivering high-quality veterinary medicine. In-house lab analyzers are vital, but they require regular maintenance and quality control (QC) to ensure accurate and consistent results. Yet, despite its importance, proactive analyzer care can be time-consuming and, as such, often goes undone.
Let's explore how adopting a complete quality assurance strategy can benefit your practice, patients, and clients—plus how to overcome traditional quality control inefficiencies.
The Importance of Regular Analyzer Maintenance and Quality Control
Preventive analyzer maintenance is akin to preventive care in our patients, helping to ensure they function optimally for as long as possible. Whether at the veterinary clinic or reference laboratory, routine analyzer care reduces unexpected malfunctions that could disrupt workflow and compromise patient care. Even a few flakes of dried blood in a chemistry analyzer can aggravate sensitive equipment.
While maintenance generally refers to scheduled cleanings, tune-ups, and equipment replacement, QC focuses on whether and how well the machine works. Performing analyzer maintenance and QC during downtime helps prevent unexpected failures from occurring during the busiest days when you need everything to work.
Onboard vs. External Quality Control
For veterinary analyzers, we divide QC into the onboard (or internal) and external categories. Each plays a vital role in evaluating analyzer operations—but in different ways.
Onboard QC is built into most modern analyzers and provides a high-level assessment of the system to verify its readiness for processing the next sample. Before running a sample, the machine checks to ensure internal components are working appropriately. An analyzer that fails an onboard QC check provides immediate feedback to warn the user including how to resolve the issue. Onboard QC checks whether the machine is working and ready for the next sample run.
External QC conducts a more detailed examination of the sub-components, ensuring precision and reliability of the system. Tasks that external QC can evaluate include whether the analyzer is accurately measuring specific analytes, correctly pipetting samples, or properly diluting samples.
The Clinical Benefits of Consistent Quality Control
Maintaining consistent QC practices offers numerous clinical benefits. Veterinarians can rely on the results to make critical decisions about patient care, create a treatment plan while the client waits, and discuss recommendations face-to-face for better comprehension. Just like how regular oil changes for your car help prevent long-term problems, adhering to regular onboard and external QC procedures can help veterinary teams avoid future issues.
Comprehensive Quality Assurance
A comprehensive quality assurance strategy including routine maintenance, and onboard and external QC, ensures your in-house analyzers provide accurate, reliable, and actionable test results. External QC also helps give veterinarians confidence in their recommendations.
Regular maintenance and quality control are necessary to keep in-house analyzers functioning optimally. Consistent analyzer performance may help improve revenue, team morale, client trust, and even patient outcomes. New technology can help the team streamline and prioritize QC procedures to prevent unexpected breakdowns and keep the practice lab running smoothly, ultimately supporting practice success.
