Winter 2025
Applications open: November 11, 2024
Applications close: January 7, 2025
Course offering: January 21 – March 30, 2025
Description
Improving quality is a critical component to a successfully run laboratory. Laboratory managers must think strategically about ways to improve staffing and personnel, maximize space and equipment usage, follow laboratory compliance regulations, make data-driven decisions, and optimize laboratory finances.
The goal of this course is to provide you with a foundation and help you develop your management skills in key areas of clinical laboratory quality operations management.
This course builds on the World Health Organization’s 12 essential components for laboratory quality and compliance, which is applicable to laboratories all over the world. It also includes specifics related to clinical laboratory testing requirements in North America. You will learn key quality and management principles to better manage your laboratory organization and personnel, contribute to a safe working environment, and establish a program for managing equipment and purchasing inventory.
In this course you will learn principles of laboratory management including the importance and scope of the laws, policies, and regulations that ensure quality medical laboratory practice in the U.S. and internationally. You will also gain knowledge in laboratory accreditation, financial management systems and finances of clinical laboratory testing for patient care. Finally, you will learn about the importance of data and how to make data-driven decisions in the laboratory, review data management tools, and understand how different laboratory information systems (LIS) affect your laboratory.
Learning Objectives
Participants completing the course at the highest level of achievement should be able to:
- Define lab quality management and quality management systems (QMS) terms;
- Develop a personal vision, mission and long-term goals to guide your leadership development and growth;
- Identify personnel management principles that contribute to a workforce that is qualified, competent, and understands and follows quality laboratory practices and implement and uphold laboratory safety and security practices and procedures;
- Explain the importance of establishing a program for managing equipment;
- Improve laboratory quality and practice your country-specific laws and regulations that govern clinical laboratory testing;
- Deploy fiscal compliance and management skills;
- Develop a process to prepare your laboratory staff for audits and assessment;
- Identify and consult appropriate sources of data-driven decisions;
- Apply critical analyses to laboratory data and communicate results and interpretations in an impactful way; and
- Describe the role of laboratory information management systems in improving laboratory processes and data quality.