The Memory Jogger II for Laboratory Operations: Raising the Level of Quality in the Medical Laboratory

This new version of The Memory Jogger II pocket guide presents the quality improvement tools & management and planning tools for all your process improvement needs. GOAL/QPC and COLA have partnered to bring you an advanced version of the Memory Jogger II. This joint venture brings you targeted tools and examples, and it moves COLA an important step further in embracing and promoting quality systems and state-of-the-art continual improvement tools. These tools can work in all size labs, at all levels of complexity. COLA and GOAL/QPC are working together to bring you the tools to succeed. The tools in this Memory Jogger have helped thousands of organizations make dramatic improvements in their productivity, quality, and planning. It contains basic and advanced quality tools, a problem-solving model, and team guidelines. Help your organization become more focused and better skilled in identifying and solving critical problems and tackling key issues. Your organization will also be more effective at designing data- and consensus-inspired action plans and results. COLA is the premier independent medical laboratory education, consultation, and accreditation organization. In medical laboratories of all sizes and specialties, healthcare professionals around the world are using continuous quality improvement (CQI) as their strategy to bring about dramatic changes in their operations. Their purpose is to stay competitive in a world of instant communication and technological advancement.These professionals and their organizations need to meet or exceed customer expectations while maintaining a cost-competitive position. Continuous quality improvement, a systematic, organization-wide approach for continually improving all processes that deliver quality products and services, is the strategy many organizations are adopting to meet today's challenges and to prepare for those down the road.In pursuing CQI, stick to these four basic principles: 1. Develop a strong customer focus.2. Continually improve all processes.3. Involve employees.4. Mobilize both data and team knowledge to improve decision making.Use this book and the tools in it to focus on, improve, involve employees in and direct your path toward continuous quality improvement.Contents Foreword Acknowledgments How to Use This Book Tool Selector Chart Introduction Activity Network Diagram (AND)  Gantt Chart Affinity Diagram Brainstorming Cause & Effect/Fishbone Diagram Check Sheet Control Chart Data Points Flowchart Force Field Analysis Histogram Interrelationship Diagraph (ID) Matrix Diagram Nominal Group Technique (NGT)  Multivoting Pareto Chart Prioritization Matrices Process Capability Radar Chart Scatter Diagram Team Guidelines  Team Stages  Conducting Effective Meetings Tree Diagram  Process Decision Program Chart (PDPC) Problem-Solving/Process-Improvement Model: Improvement Storyboard