Assessment of Internal Quality Control Results and Their Matching to Westgard Rules at Hamedan Teaching Hospital Medical Laboratories in 2021-2022

Internal quality control is a necessary part of the quality control system that assays the accuracy and precision of the analytical phase. This study has been considered the assessment of internal quality control results and their matching to Westgard rules at Hamedan teaching hospital medical laboratories in 2021-2022.

Methods and Materials: 

In this research, the internal quality control result data of six Hamedan teaching hospital medical laboratories in 2021-2022 was collected for assessment of their matching to Westgard rules. Then, frequency diagrams were used to describe the collected data.

The usage of control was 415 cases (90%) in the hematology department, 86% in the microbiology department, 347 cases (75%) in the biochemistry department, and 15 cases (10%) in the serology department. Matching to the Westgard rules indicated that 88 cases (85.3%) of results were in the warning range and 15 cases (14.7%) of the results were in the result rejection range in the biochemistry and hematology department. The performed actions to eliminate errors were 65% equipment calibration, 13.3% equipment rewashing, 13% replacement of controls/ solutions, and 8.7% repairing of devices.

The highest percentage of internal quality control implementation was at the hematology department, the lowest one was at the serology department, and the most performed action was equipment calibration.