QUALITY SYSTEMS
Iowa Visits Arizona and New Mexico
in APHL’s New Quality Manager Exchange Program
By Bertina Su, MPH, manager, Quality Systems
In early 2019, APHL announced an
opportunity for peer-to-peer learning
exchanges for quality managers from
member laboratories. These exchanges
would provide managers with new
perspectives on quality management
systems, regulatory requirements,
quality culture, risk management,
internal audits, document control
software and other issues that they
confront daily in their work.
Marcia Valbracht, manager of Quality
Systems, and Mark Pendergast, advisor
to the director and manager of Quality
Systems at the State Hygienic Laboratory
at the University of Iowa, took advantage
of the new program. Kathryn Wangsness,
Office of Laboratory Services chief and
quality assurance manager, and her
team hosted Valbracht at the Arizona
State Public Health Laboratory, while
Allison Treloar, director of the Office of
Quality, Safety, Security, and Emergency
Preparedness, hosted Pendergast at the
New Mexico Scientific Laboratory Division.
Joint Planning for Improvement
Prior to her visit to Arizona, Valbracht
worked with Wangsness to identify their
joint goals for the exchange: “We wanted
to identify similarities and differences in
our quality programs—what works well,
what could be improved and how the
information could be incorporated into
our laboratory.”
The resulting agenda for the exchange
visits began with a review of each
laboratory’s organizational chart to
understand where quality management fit
within the laboratory structure and how
it interacted with other programs. This
discussion served as a springboard to a
deeper conversation on quality manager
roles and responsibilities, and the quality
management program as a whole.
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LAB MATTERS Summer 2019
Allison Treloar
Kathryn Wangsness
Several effective quality practices were
identified. For example, standardized
practices, such as shift workers following
the same procedure to ensure that all
samples are tested correctly, are critical
to meet accreditation requirements.
Such practices must be communicated
clearly and frequently, and be combined
with daily section meetings to give staff
an opportunity to address problems
immediately. Monthly section quality
reports and checklists also help managers
to determine actions needed to meet
quality assurance requirements. The
APHL Quality Assurance Community,
membership in public health quality
associations and online research on
laboratory quality topics also can provide
managers with helpful tips to strengthen
quality programs.
Next Steps to Advance
Quality Programs
Following their visits to Arizona and New
Mexico, Valbracht and Pendergast plan to
meet with Iowa laboratory management
to explore how to improve the quality
culture in the organization by engaging
management in quality training for staff
and increasing bench staff involvement in
discussions of quality programs. Overall,
they agreed, public health laboratories
require additional funding for quality
management staff, better defined roles
and responsibilities for quality programs,
Marcia Valbracht
Mark Pendergast
training in the rules and regulations of
different accrediting bodies, and better
document control practices and software.
Pendergast also suggested that APHL
could help support laboratory quality
programs: “Perhaps the APHL annual
meeting could be used as a venue to
train quality managers. APHL could also
consider developing targeted training for
quality managers and laboratory directors
on their roles and responsibilities as
they relate to quality, as well as how
to build and/or maintain a culture of
quality. A discussion on standardizing
risk assessments, specifically the
identification, analysis, evaluation and
treatment, would also be helpful.”
APHL looks forward to bringing these
ideas to the Laboratory Systems and
Standards Committee this fall to discuss
trainings and resources that could be
developed to meet these needs. Public
health laboratories that have an interest
in participating in the new Quality
Manager Exchange Program may contact
Tina Su, [email protected]. n
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
APHL.org