Use of Six Sigma Worksheets for assessment of internal and external failure costs associated with candidate quality control rules for an ADVIA 120 hematology analyzer.

BACKGROUND: Quality control (QC) validation is an essential tool in total quality management of a veterinary clinical pathology laboratory. Cost-analysis can be a valuable technique to help identify an appropriate QC procedure for the laboratory, although this has never been reported in veterinary medicine.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the applicability of the Six Sigma Quality Cost Worksheets in the evaluation of possible candidate QC rules identified by QC validation.

METHODS: Three months of internal QC records were analyzed. EZ Rules 3 software was used to evaluate candidate QC procedures, and the costs associated with the application of different QC rules were calculated using the Six Sigma Quality Cost Worksheets. The costs associated with the current and the candidate QC rules were compared, and the amount of cost savings was calculated.

RESULTS: There was a significant saving when the candidate 1-2.5s, n = 3 rule was applied instead of the currently utilized 1-2s, n = 3 rule. The savings were 75% per year (£ 8232.5) based on re-evaluating all of the patient samples in addition to the controls, and 72% per year (£ 822.4) based on re-analyzing only the control materials. The savings were also shown to change accordingly with the number of samples analyzed and with the number of daily QC procedures performed.

CONCLUSIONS: These calculations demonstrated the importance of the selection of an appropriate QC procedure, and the usefulness of the Six Sigma Costs Worksheet in determining the most cost-effective rule(s) when several candidate rules are identified by QC validation.