14 billion tests are conducted in U.S. CLIA laboratories each year.1 New tests, rising chronic disease rates, and an aging population are driving demand and putting quality control in laboratories under pressure. Staffing shortfalls and constrained budgets add further challenges. All this leads our industry to continually seek ways to streamline laboratory quality control processes to increase productivity and confidence in patient results.
Fewer Controls, Smoother Workflows
Integrating multi-analyte QC materials into quality control in laboratories is an effective way to simplify operations and improve laboratory workflow efficiency. These third-party controls contain multiple analytes at concentrations representative of those found in patient samples, allowing laboratories to assess multiple analytes using a single control material. Demand for multi-analyte controls is increasing because they eliminate the need for a separate control for each analyte, saving laboratories time, space, and costs.2
Consolidated quality control materials reduce the number of individual bottles, quality control volume consumption , and handling time. For instance, our Multichem IA Plus product includes more than 87 analytes in a single product and can replace up to four competitor products.3 What once required 12 separate QC vials now requires only three.
Five Ways Consolidated QC Materials Improve Laboratory Operations
Multi-analyte quality control solutions for laboratories provide valuable operational benefits, including:
Simpler laboratory workflows
Combining dozens of analytes eliminates the need for manual mixing, aliquoting, and processing of multiple individual vials, reducing repetitive tasks and saving technician time. One study estimated time savings of up to 10 minutes per shift per instrument (varies by specific protocols).4
Reduced risk of human error
Removing multiple aliquoting steps and less vial-swapping lowers the risk of transcription or pipetting mistakes.
More available storage space
Multi-analyte QC materials free up valuable lab space and reduce inventory complexity. Your lab is better organized when there are fewer items to stock and manage. Consolidated controls can reduce inventory storage by up to 80%.5
Less reagents and consumables waste
Running a smaller total number of vials reduces reagent dead-volume waste by up to 75%.5 Sustainability is a key focus area in healthcare, and using fewer vials also reduces the use of consumables and lowers lab costs.
Improved cost effectiveness
In addition to the financial benefits of time savings, reduced errors, increased storage capacity, and less waste, multi-analyte materials lower shipping logistics, packaging waste, and long-term operating costs.
Making Quality Control in Laboratories More Efficient and Sustainable
We have been able to demonstrate that selecting highly consolidated control materials and ready-to-use vials from SeraCare Clinical Diagnostics will yield important savings in terms of time and costs, while providing a comparable analytical performance. This is a step forward toward running QC procedures in a very smart and efficient way. The savings of consumables and waste is also remarkable.
This study evaluated multi-analyte quality control materials, including Multichem IA Plus, to determine how well they increase efficiency and reduce costs while maintaining the accuracy of patient results4:
Key Findings:
The study found that consolidating QC materials can reduce resource use, waste, and handling time while maintaining comparable analytical performance:
- Cold storage space savings of 52%
- Handling time savings of up to 7.8 days per year per instrument (based on three QC events per day) or up to 10.2 minutes per shift per instrument
- Dead volume savings of up to 79%
- Consumable waste savings of 50%
A More Efficient Way Forward
Today’s demands on labs drive our industry to achieve greater efficiency, cost savings, and sustainability while maintaining or improving performance. Multi-analyte materials are transformative for quality control in laboratories. The savings in handling time are a valuable bonus for laboratory QC management - freeing up technical staff time for other critical tasks. It’s understandable that usage is growing.
Multi-analyte QC materials are an important tool for gaining real savings and efficiencies while protecting the accuracy of results. Our Multichem IA Plus product reduces 12 individual vials to 3 multi-analyte vials while ensuring that results accurately reflect instrument performance across the board.
Ready to simplify quality control in laboratories? Explore how multi-analyte QC materials can help reduce waste, storage needs, and workflow complexity.
Check out previous related articles:
Cloud vs. On-Premises: Rethinking Security in Hospital Informatics
5 Best Practices for Best-in-class Clinical Lab Quality Control
The Importance of Using Third-Party, Independent Quality Controls
References
- Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)
- IVD Quality Control Market Size, Share, Forecast & Trend Analysis
- Technopath Clinical Diagnostics Quality Control Materials
- Consolidation of quality control material improves patient safety and supports sustainability
- Challenging the Status Quo for Quality Control in an Integrated Health System Lab