ERROR PROOFING THE LABORATORY

Course overview

Eradicating error in healthcare may seem like a Sisyphean task, yet legislators, regulators and the public in general expect error-free work from medical professionals. How to work without error is the subject of countless lectures, papers and studies, encompassing every discipline from manufacturing to service. The Toyota Production System of quality manufacturing uses the term ¿poke-yoke¿ (mistake-proofing) to describe the process of eliminating production defects. ¿Error-Proofing in Healthcare¿ will distill and discuss the essential elements of ¿poke-yoke¿, starting with defining and exploring the types of error most often encountered in the provision of medical care. Proven improvement tools and techniques for ensuring quality outputs will be presented with practical applications to place the error-proofing strategy in the context of the laboratory. After this presentation, participants will be able to: 1. Describe the three components of laboratory error. 2. Use the principles of process design to eliminate the potential for error. 3. Differentiate between improvement strategies for production and service.