[Histonet] QC on stained slides

[louise renton]

Thank you for your very helpful suggestions....The situation here is a
little weird as I am the only one doing the sectioning in this unit
(research unit), and mostly i look at my own slides to do
histomorphometry...so I have to grade myself??!!!

Oh well, we do the best we can

best regards



On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 7:05 PM, WILLIAM DESALVO <wdesalvo.cac <@t> hotmail.com>wrote:

>  Attached is a copy of the QA sheet that I provided at one of my NSH
> presentations. Review and use as needed.
>
> I believe your question of what makes a slide adequate or superior may be
> the wrong question. As long as you have a subjective review with a wide and
> varied specification, it will be extremely difficult to set a scoring
> process that will provide the desired feed back. I suggest you might want to
> approach in a different way and look at the number of defect or unacceptable
> products produced as compared to an agreed upon and high standard.
>
> use a Six Sigma tool to help you. I suggest you need an opportunities for
> improvement procedure and use the Defects per Million Opportunities
> (DPMO) tool. This will provide a process to evaluate the performance above
> and below standard in a simple and efficient manner. Your goal is never to
> deliver adequate work to your customer, the pathologist, but to always
> deliver the highest quality of work. You cannot improve the quality of work
> produced unless you know what is not meeting standard, not what is adequate
> or superior. Whether it is one person or multiple people working in the lab,
> there will always be variation in the product delivered because it is a
> manual process. You always want to reduce and narrow that variation to
> maintain the highest and consistent quality. But to narrow the variation you
> must have a standard and the standard must be agreed upon by the persons
> producing and the persons reviewing the work.
>
> I believe using a Six Sigma tool will provide you with the feedback you
> require and help you maintain the highest quality of slides delivered to the
> pathologists. Standardize your procedures and protocols, develop standards
> (highest quality standards) w/ your pathologists and then document, review,
> track and trend defects to improve the process. The data collected will give
> you specific information as to how you have performed to standard combined
> with the specific number of units produced by you (quality and quantity
> combined). This process will also allow you to compare multiple individuals
> working in the department and compare those individuals to each
> other. Everyone will be evaluated according to standards set for the work
> produced, plain, simple and effective.
>
> *William DeSalvo,* B.*S., HTL(ASCP)*
> *
> *
>
>
>
> > Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2010 09:25:07 +0200
> > From: louise.renton <@t> gmail.com
>
> > To: Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> > CC:
> > Subject: [Histonet] QC on stained slides
> >
> > Hi all
> >
> > As part of a self assessment programme conducted by my employer, and
> related
> > to my performance review and salary adjustment, I need to determine the
> > criteria of what makes a stained slide acceptable or unacceptable. I was
> > wondering if anyone out there had a "checklist" that they would be
> willing
> > to share, that i could perhaps adapt. I realise that the easiest would be
> > to send slides out for external control, but in this case it is not
> > feasible.
> >
> > What I put together is this:
> >
> > - Quality of decalcification, processing, infiltration
> > - Quality of sections (no wrinkles, missing bits, scores etc)
> > - Entire representation of tissue area
> > - staining pattern as expected according to protocol
> > - coverslipped without bubbles or other inclusions
> > - labelled neatly and correctly
> >
> > but, the question inmy mind is what would be the criteria that would make
> a
> > slide merely adequate or truely outstanding?
> >
> > PLease help
> >
> > thank you
> >
> > --
> > Louise Renton
> > Bone Research Unit
> > University of the Witwatersrand
> > Johannesburg
> > South Africa
> > +27 11 717 2298 (tel & fax)
> > 073 5574456 (emergencies only)
> > "There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls".
> > George Carlin
> > No trees were killed in the sending of this message.
> > However, many electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Histonet mailing list
> > Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> > http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
>



-- 
Louise Renton
Bone Research Unit
University of the Witwatersrand
Johannesburg
South Africa
+27 11 717 2298 (tel & fax)
073 5574456 (emergencies only)
"There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls".
George Carlin
No trees were killed in the sending of this message.
However, many electrons were terribly inconvenienced.