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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 7, 2026

Microbial Control and Monitoring Strategies for Cleanroom Environments and Cellular Therapies

Microbial Control and Monitoring Strategies for Cleanroom Environments and Cellular Therapies

Published on: March 17, 2023

Internal quality control: best practice.

Helen Kinns¹, Sarah Pitkin, David Housley

¹Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Luton and Dunstable University Hospital NHS Trust, , Luton, UK.

Journal of Clinical Pathology

|September 28, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Implementing effective internal quality control (IQC) in clinical biochemistry labs optimizes error detection and reduces false rejections. This practical guide details IQC system stages for reliable patient results.

Keywords:

Laboratory Management Quality Assurance Quality Control

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Area of Science:

Clinical Biochemistry
Laboratory Medicine
Quality Management

Background:

Internal quality control (IQC) implementation and review vary widely in laboratory practice.
Ineffective IQC can lead to incorrect patient result validation or unnecessary rejection of analytical runs.

Purpose of the Study:

To provide a practical approach for clinical biochemistry laboratories to implement an efficient IQC system.
To optimize error detection and minimize false rejections in routine laboratory operations.

Main Methods:

Consideration of each IQC system stage: material selection, rule selection, and post-rejection actions.
Grouping assays based on performance to assign appropriate IQC rules.
Utilizing tools to categorize assay performance for IQC rule assignment.

Main Results:

Assay-specific IQC systems reduce inappropriate sample-run rejections compared to universal rules.
A limited number of IQC rules (3-4) are sufficient for routine biochemistry assays when grouped by performance.
Implementation requires time and education but yields significant cost and labor reductions.

Conclusions:

An optimized IQC system ensures day-to-day analytical consistency and reliable patient result release.
Tailoring IQC rules to specific analyte performance is more effective than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Strategic implementation of IQC leads to substantial operational efficiencies and cost savings.