We reduce healthcare costs from laboratory errors.
CatalystQC™ software reports the number of significant laboratory errors, their resultant healthcare cost, the problems, their solutions, and the money you can save. Schedule a Demo
Are you looking for opportunities to SAVE MONEY in Your Hospital?
Decrease clinical cost of lab error
Healthcare institutions can save money! Laboratory errors lead to delayed or missed diagnosis, incorrect patient treatment, unnecessary tests, longer stays and inflated clinical care cost. Small errors are inevitable, but they can be reduced in number and cost. You will be amazed how much you can save!
Monitor and reduce cost of error
Clinical cost of laboratory error is proportional to the variation of reported results from their true values. That’s the whole point of laboratory quality control – to make sure results are good enough to make the right clinical decisions. Acceptable sigma does not equal acceptable cost. You can do better.
Stop errors sooner when failures occur
CLSI EP23A says that “At the LEAST, the ability of QC procedures to detect medically-allowable error must be verified.” Over one third of QC processes tested will never detect simulated failure. You may be exposing patients to avoidable risk, and pouring good money down the drain. Prevent with CatalystQC™.
Cloud-based Quality/Risk Management Software to Guide Laboratory Staff to Clinical Savings
C-Suite Executives
Laboratory errors waste precious money you need to treat Covid-19 and other critical clinical programs. Unlike any other laboratory quality programs, our software tells you the number and clinical cost of results that fail your medical goals – and how to reduce those costs. The C-Suite dashboard condenses multiple laboratory groups and sites to meaningful graphics and cost.
Lab Directors & Quality Managers
Guide the quality management process. See quality at a glance. Set and meet your medical goals. Meet ISO 15189 and CLIA regulations. Identify problem laboratory groups, sites, departments, instruments, and analytes. Discuss the financial value of quality with C-suite executives.
Lab Managers & Supervisors
Drill down with our interactive dashboard to identify laboratories, departments, instrument models, instruments, analytes and QC samples needing improvement. Condense hundreds of QC samples to intuitive Risk-Based Quality Grades. Focus on tests that are close to, or failing, standards of acceptable risk.
Front-Line Problem Solvers
Imagine a software report that tells you what the problem is and how to fix it! No statistical jargon, just clear, consistent advice. Clear reports identify analytical processes with problems in accuracy or precision, tell you how to fix the problem for each instrument model and what QC strategy is required to maintain acceptable risk and cost of errors.
Save in the Lab. Simplify & VERIFY quality control.
Start with Risk-Based Quality Grades
Monthly review can be a time consuming and often burdensome activity. Manual processes can also be error prone because of human error. CatalystQC™ helps to automate many of the processes around quality review.
Condense hundreds of QC charts to Risk-Based Quality Grades that instantly convey ability to meet medical goals – today and if the method fails tomorrow.
Avoid statistical confusion
Do you find it challenging to manage and troubleshoot quality because of confusing statistical jargon in reports? We can help! CatalystQC™ removes the reliance on statistical jargon with easy to understand reports and dashboards. We tell you what the problem is and how to fix it. Compare instruments and analytes to pinpoint areas to improve.
Manage RISK, not stats
Are you monitoring sigma? How often? How? What sigma do you accept? What do you do if sigma is not good enough?
There is a better way! The laboratory director can set acceptable medical error and RISK, based on the number and cost of error per year, and per failure event. Both methods above are six sigma. Average cost of error increases as results approach the total allowable error limit (medical goal.)
How Do I Get Started?
Schedule A Meeting
Just click here, or the SCHEDULE DEMO button, to select a convenient day and time in our booking calendar. We will set up a Zoom meeting for an informal chat. Let’s get to know each other and explore potential opportunities.
Design a Customized Trial Plan
We will design a plan customized just for your needs. We usually begin small so you can become familiar with our interactive dashboards customized for C-Suite, Lab Director, Quality Manager, Lab Manager, Supervisor, and Front Line staff.
Implement the Trial Plan
Plan integration with your software, workflow, and processes. Train staff in problem-solving with dashboard drill-downs to consistently maintain your defined quality and risk standards. Measure savings in the number, and cost, of laboratory errors reported.
We Get It. We have been there.
Having to work with tight budgets. No time to do effective monthly reviews. Trying to understand and communicate complicated statistics that really don’t work in a laboratory environment. That is why we created CatalystQC™.
Zoe Brooks, CEO, and co-founder of AWEsome Numbers Inc. has worked on the front line in five laboratory departments, been a laboratory manager, provincial inspector, regional technical specialist, private laboratory regional manager, and now an entrepreneur. She designed the predecessor of CatalystQC™ to address the problems she encountered trying to bring effective quality control to six rural laboratories. The solution – give front line heroes the tools and training they need to meet defined standards. Give administrators reports to assure quality, regulations and minimal cost are maintained.
Frequently Asked
How much might I save?
In this case study, patient test volume was modeled at 100 patient samples per day for 104 QC samples for a total of 3,796,000 patient results per year. Calculations were based on data for mean, SD, true value, QC chart assigned mean and SD for calcium and glucose collected by Z. Brooks for various posters. QC rules were set at 1-3s and 2-2s; samples were tested once daily – as popular practice.
Before = Originally submitted data
– 16% of original analytical processes were identified as Risk-Based-Quality Grade D or F, requiring improvement.
After = modeled data using Mathematically OptimiZed Risk Evaluation(c) in CatalystQC software
– Analytical bias and CV in original Grade D & F methods were improved to the average value attained by acceptable methods.
CatalystQC provides detailed advice identifying samples requiring improvement in accuracy and/or precision – and guides staff to consistent action.
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– 34% of original Daily QC processes were NOT effective to detect the failure of a modeled shift to cause 5% failure rate in a single run.
– CatalystQC applied a single QC “Stop and act rule” from 1-2s to 1-3.5s with test frequency and bracketing to prevent any patients from being reported if methods fail.
– Unlike multi-rules, CatalystsQC rules are always verified to detect failure of acceptable risk in a single run.
Book a demo here to discover how much your laboratory can save.
How can I test the software?
Book a demo here to schedule a meeting with us. We will show you case studies of improvement in risk and cost plus how the power of CatalystQC and can help you to validate and monitor your QC and Risk Management.
Why are numbers AWEsome?
“A number is A thing OF AWE“
The trick to understanding quality control and risk management is to make sure you know where each number comes from, what it really means and the unique information it provides. You can simplify the maze of QC data with this one catchy phrase:
“A number is A thing OF AWE“
Each number comes from either Opinion, or FACT.
Each number conveys either: Where you ARE, Where you WANT to be, or Where you EXPECT to be.
These three fundamental concepts about numbers, in general, will help:
- Every number is “one” …. one single piece of information. Each number can be associated with a specific “What, Where, When, Who, and How.”
Every number:
- conveys one unique piece of information (What it is)
- comes from one specific place (e.g., one instrument within one laboratory) (Where it was created)
- at one specific time or over a defined time period (When)
- by one identifiable person or persons (Who)
- following one test procedure (How)
2. Every number needs “one” … a reason that you care
When you are working through problems and assessing numerical data, be prepared to return to basics and discuss:
- Why are you looking at this number?
- What does it mean?
- Why does it matter?
- Why do you care?
- A number is a thing OF AWE
The OF reminds you that each number is either Opinion, or Fact.
Numbers selected from one of several possible choices are based on Opinion. (You decide which source to use; you do not calculate these numbers within your own laboratory.) For example, you may decide that the best source for the True value for a QC sample is the peer review report, or the package insert value. You may choose to use Biological Variation as your primary goal for performance standards and to use CLIA or other Proficiency limits if biological variation goals are unavailable or unattainable. On the other hand, the measured values of the mean and standard deviation of each QC sample are based on Fact.
Each number conveys either:
- Where you ARE, Where you WANT to be, or Where you EXPECT to be.
The measured mean and SD from each QC sample in a single time period with a specific who, what, where and how tell you “where you ARE” now and “Where you EXPECT to be” in the future unless there is a change in the process. The best estimate of the True Value for each QC sample and medical goals as TEa limits (Total Error Allowed) define “Where you WANT to be.”
You say this is better than six sigma. Why?
- Six sigma originated in a manufacturing environment and doesn’t encompass the intricacies of medical lab quality. There are conflicting definitions, formulae, and standards of acceptable sigma.
- The sigma value calculated from percent and sigma based on units of measure are different.
- In theory, six-sigma includes a shift of -1.5 SD in the calculated value based on data from a manufacturing setting in 1987. This shift has never been observed in the medical laboratory.
- Sigma is complicated to understand and teach.
- Sigma values cannot be tied to cost of error, as shown in the example below.
An extensive study of potential healthcare costs from analytical bias in calcium results (National Institute of Standards and Technology. Planning Report 04.1. The impact of calibration error in medical decision making. https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/director/planning/report04-1.pdf.) examined charts of 89,000 adults with at least one calcium >8.9 mg/dL (2.255 mol/L) at the Mayo Clinic in 1998–1999 proved that:
- Medical actions (e.g., follow-up procedures) are often based on decision limits
- Probability of ordering 26 procedures correlated with calcium values
- The number of follow-up procedures, and hence health care costs, is directly related to initial calcium test values.
ISO15189 (Medical laboratories — Requirements for quality and competence. https://www.iso.org/standard/56115.html) states that the laboratory director (or designate/s) shall “provide effective leadership of the medical laboratory service, including budget planning and financial management, in accordance with institutional assignment of such responsibilities.”
Unlike sigma metrics, CatalystQC software evaluates current method quality and recommends a validated QC strategy based on:
1. Margin for Error is the number of SD the mean can move BEFORE YOUR DEFINED ACCEPTABLE RISK LEVEL is exceeded. You can set acceptable risk as a percent, a number per year (e.g. 1), as cost, or as sigma. Sigma tells you the number of SD the mean can move before 50% of results fail the allowable error limit.
2. The observed average number of errors reported is compared to YOUR DEFINED ACCEPTABLE NUMBER of medically unreliable results.
3. Observed cost of error compared to YOUR DEFINED ACCEPTABLE COST. Sigma metrics cannot be related to cost of error.
How is this different from sigma and Westgard rules?
The main difference is that there is no manual work required.
Our automated QC design ensures that you never report more than your defined acceptable number of errors every day, even if methods fail unexpectedly.
Laboratories often use fewer QC runs.
Our process detects error sooner than Westgard rules and currently recommended frequency.
You report fewer errors and save clinical care costs.
The examples below are from a method with 4 sigma stable performance before the red lines with a simulated shift to 5% error rate after the lines. Multi-rules require three QC runs to detect the failure, while the single 1-2s rule requires only one run. CatalystQC also recommends increasing the frequency of front line and supervisory chart review.
CatalystQC also provides specific action to improve method accuracy or precision, as required in this example..
How do you connect quality to cost?
The Costing Module in CatalystQC contains functionality to calculate cost, extrapolating from an extensive study of potential healthcare costs from analytical bias in calcium results (National Institute of Standards and Technology. Planning Report 04.1. The impact of calibration error in medical decision making. https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/director/planning/report04-1.pdf.) Authors examined charts of 89,000 adults with at least one calcium >8.9 mg/dL (2.255 mol/L) at the Mayo Clinic in 1998–1999 and proved that:
- Probability of ordering 26 procedures correlated with calcium values
- The number of follow-up procedures, and hence health care costs, is directly related to initial calcium test values.
Can you integrate with our LIS?
Yes of course! If you are using these systems, we can help you integrate easily.
What if we don't have an LIS?
As long as your instruments export data, we can help to integrate with CatalystQC.
How much will it cost?
We guarantee that the cost will be covered by savings that you will experience both within the laboratory and in clinical healthcare cost with effective methods, verified-effective QC processes and a reduction in laboratory error.
Schedule A Demo Today!
We want you to be successful and we guarantee there is no risk to you!
