EVALUATION OF BLOOD GAS INSTRUMENTS WITH 6 SIGMA METHODOLOGY

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Purpose : 6 sigma is one of the most effective quality tools for demonstrating laboratory analytical performance. 6 sigma tells us what level we are at and what rules to follow in case of poor performance. Blood gas analysis plays an important role in the assessment of critical illness, determining the aetiology and severity of disease. In our study, we aimed to evaluate the test performance of blood gas instruments in our hospital with 6 sigma methodology. Methods : The study included pH, pO2, pCO2, glucose, lactate, ionised Ca, Na, K and Cl parameters analysed on Siemens RAPIDpoint 500e blood gas instruments in the emergency laboratory. In the sigma metric calculation TEa (total permissible error) rates, the values determined by RiliBAK (German Guidelines for Quality) were used. The causes of errors of poorly performing tests were evaluated with the quality goal index (QGI). Results : At the results, PCO2 (Level 2) in Instrument I, Lactate (Level 1-2) in Instrument II and pCO2 (Level 1-2) in Instrument III are the tests with sigma values below 4. When we look at the low performance problems, precision in Instrument I pCO2 (Level 2), accuracy in Instrument II lactate (Level 1-2) and accuracy in Instrument III pCO2 (Level 1-2) were detected. Conclusion : This study has allowed us to monitor laboratory blood gas testing performance very closely. With the 6 sigma methodology we have captured underperforming tests and investigated the reasons behind them