Quality cycles: maintenance, CalVer, PT and temperature logs
Run recurring lab quality work from one schedule: maintenance, reagent lots, calibration verification, proficiency testing, comparability and temperature logs.
Open "Quality cycles" under "Quality management" to run six kinds of recurring work: equipment maintenance, reagent lots, calibration verification, proficiency testing, instrument comparability, and temperature logs.
Finding work
You can find work in several ways:
- The default "By location" view groups rows by site group, then lab area, then analyzers and temperature-monitored equipment, then analytes. Equipment shows a thermometer icon and the name given when it was set up. Choose "Flat list" to see every row in one table.
- Use "Search" and "Filters" to narrow the rows. For example, filter by "Type", then "Temperature" to see the day's temperature log with a reading box per equipment.
- The calendar shows what is due. Click its "Filter" button, left of the month, to choose which kinds appear; the browser remembers the choice.
- Click a row's "Audit trail" icon to see who created it and when, every assignment, edits and archiving. Open its "Actions" menu to choose "Edit", "Assign" or "Archive".
The side panel
Click anywhere on a row, except the checkbox, audit trail and actions, to open the side panel and highlight the row. The panel shows the record as text with one main button in its footer, which opens a small form:
| Kind | Footer button |
|---|---|
| Maintenance | Mark Complete |
| Reagent lot | Put lot in service, or Change lot |
| Calibration verification | Start CalVer cycle, Link study, or Open experiment |
| Proficiency testing | Create PT event, or Update evaluation |
| Instrument comparability | Attach plan, Create comparison study, or Open comparison study |
| Temperature log | Log reading |
To change the setup, click "Edit", the footer's left button, or choose "Edit" from the "Actions" menu. You can change the title or name, schedule and due date, who is assigned, and the kind's own settings. Open the "History log" tab to see past work and download it as a PDF.
New work is assigned to the person who creates it unless someone else is chosen. Assigning creates My Queue tasks automatically.
Temperature logs
To set one up, click "Add", then "Temperature monitor". Enter the lab area, the equipment (refrigerator, freezer, ultra-low freezer, incubator, water bath, room, or other, saying what it is), a name, the unit, how often it is read (daily, twice daily, weekdays, weekly, or every N hours or days), the acceptable range, an optional humidity range, the thermometer and its correction factor. A correction factor from the thermometer's certificate is added to every reading before it is checked against the range.
Click "Log reading" to record the temperature as read and an optional note. A reading outside the range needs the corrective action taken, and can be marked as possibly affecting results. Quality events are never raised automatically. To raise one, click "Report quality event" on the "History log" tab, or go to "Events".
The "History log" tab lists every reading (day, date, time, reading, entered by, note) with search and filters, and downloads as a PDF.
Instrument comparability
For CAP COM.04250/04300, analyzers that report the same analyte are compared against a target about twice a year. To set this up, click "Add", then "Instrument comparability". Choose the site group, tick the analyte on two or more analyzers (a different analyte or make is allowed but flagged), and choose the target, the interval (1–12 months, default 6) and whether the next comparison is scheduled automatically.
Each comparison runs from a plan:
- Click "Attach plan" to create a new plan, choose an existing one, or link a study already under way. A new plan is pre-filled with the multi-instrument method comparison, every analyzer and the target. Attaching creates nothing else, and the plan is kept with your other plans.
- Click "Create comparison study" to create the experiment from the attached plan. It appears with your other experiments, and you upload the measurements in its "Data Entry".
- Click "Open comparison study" to work on it. The comparison completes when its module is signed with "Sign Module".
Click "Edit" to change the analyzers, target, interval, people, and the next due date. With nothing open, choosing a date schedules the next comparison.
Subspecialty
A record's subspecialty is set when it is created and cannot be changed afterward.