The partnership between the players envisages improvements to the quality control routines of the laboratories.
Controllab – the largest provider of Laboratory Quality Control in Brazil and Latin America – has been operating for 43 years with information to increase the reliability of reports in more than 3,000 laboratories distributed on several continents.
This know-how in quality was enriched with the partnership of Matrix – Brazilian leader in Laboratory Automation, a national company with almost 40 years of software development for the health area.
Both Controllab and Matrix are very relevant and consolidated companies in the diagnostic segment. The cooperation between the solutions of both brings to the laboratories more quality and productivity in the analyzes, helping them to ensure the credibility of their processes and exams.
The laboratory uses Quality Control (CQ) for greater reliability in the analyzes. In addition to being a requirement of Anvisa (RDC 302:2005), CQ is a prerequisite for certifications and accreditations in quality. But the benefits of the practice transcend the obligation, since adopting it in the analytical routine contributes to obtaining the recognition of doctors and patients regarding the quality of the reports issued.
The QC consists of multiple monitoring tools. Feeding each of them with manually entered data and information requires a lot of effort and time from the teams involved. Errors in this step can translate into incorrect approvals or rejections, and may even impact the patient’s report and, consequently, the credibility of the laboratory.
In order to minimize these impacts, automation and management systems have played an important role in preserving the credibility of laboratories. The systems are customized to suit all sizes and types of laboratories.
Partnership that facilitates and adds agility to processes
Aiming to simplify standardized data collection and optimize laboratory time and resources, Matrix joined the success of its specialization in computerization of laboratories with the know-how of the quality control of Controllab, providing the integration of its solutions with the Control Internal and the Provider Indicators Benchmarking.
This cooperation results in more agility and confidence in the quality processes of the laboratories. When integrating the laboratory system with Controllab solutions, the efforts of the laboratory teams focus on the analysis and decision making of the data automatically transmitted to the quality tools.
As was the case of the Unimed Volta Redonda Laboratory, which last month completed the integration of CI ONLINE (Internal Control) and PBIL (Benchmarking and Laboratory Indicators Program) with the Matrix management system.
Main Quality Control (CQ) tools
The CQ is essential for the functioning and growth of a laboratory. Among the tools that compose it, the Proficiency Test (EP) and the Internal Control (CI) stand out. The EP and the CI have complementary functions and, together, they have the central purpose of identifying the presence of possible analytical errors, enabling the laboratory to implement actions to eliminate their causes.
The Proficiency Test monitors process trends (inaccuracy), commonly related to linearity, specificity, sensitivity, interfering and calibration characteristics.
Internal Control, in turn, is applied in conjunction with the routine analysis of patient samples to validate the results produced after identifying that the analytical system is operating within the pre-defined tolerance limits, especially the precision of the process (reproducibility).
In addition to these two essential tools, it is necessary to measure and compare the performance of the laboratory with the performance of the market. This comparison helps the laboratory in the sustainability and improvement of processes. For this reason, the use of Laboratory Indicators is widespread in the segment. The indicators are a portrait of the laboratory’s performance and serve to measure how competitive the performance is, being essential to associate it with benchmarking.
Benchmarking offers concrete evidence of the performance of the process against the market. There is a comparison between companies in the same sector to measure the performance of processes and services among participants.
In the midst of crisis scenarios – such as the Covid-19 pandemic – that make teams adapt, having quality tools integrated into the laboratory system is a valuable aid for laboratories so that they can adapt more quickly to new realities, with more confidence and maintaining the credibility of their processes.
For information on how to integrate the laboratory management system with Controllab’s quality programs, contact Matrix at the website or by phone +55 (11) 3055-7250.
More details about Controllab’s Quality Control solutions can be requested by e-mail contato@controllab.com or by phone and WhatsApp +55 (21) 97901-0310 e +55 (21) 98036-1592.