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Quality Management Education Resources (QMEd)

Tailored Education and Quality Tools Developed with Pathologist Input

Your laboratory can improve overall operations, efficiency, and patient safety using training and tools developed with pathologist input and uniquely tailored for the medical laboratory. QMEd courses provide clear guidance on tasks and requirements that laboratories often find difficult to implement. Our QMEd courses will help you:

  • Build a quality management system (QMS)—one piece at a time—that sustains your continuous improvement and Lean efforts.
  • Self-assess your current QMS against international quality standards.
  • Interpret ISO 15189 requirements.
  • Implement and refine occurrence management with root cause analysis.
  • Perform internal audits using tracer audit and process audit methods.

Online Learning at Your Own Pace

Courses are:

  • Delivered online via interface that allows you to pause, resume where you left off, and learn at your own pace.
  • Mobile-friendly so that you can learn where and when you want.
  • Licensed for one year.
  • Include continuing education (CE) credit.
  • Individual learners can use their own login and will have their own bookmarking when they leave and return to the course.

WOW! Very impressive training module. Probably the best self-taught module I have seen in years. Very systematic, very visual, very easy to follow, very good discipline of staying with tried and true textbook of Root Cause Analysis.

Laboratory Consultant

Complimentary Courses for CAP 15189 Accreditation Participants

Organizations participating in our CAP 15189 Accreditation program will be granted access to three QMEd courses for their staff upon application to the program and reapplication. Access to additional courses may be granted to participating laboratories by their lead assessor as they work with the laboratory to address specific opportunities for growth or gaps in their quality system.

Course Information and Preview Videos

Risk Management

Learn how the different elements of the quality management system—eg, internal audit, data analysis—play a role in identifying and controlling risk. Learn best practices for managing your risks, as well as practical tools that apply to all phases of the risk management process.

Included is a case example showing how high-level risk assessment can be integrated into management review.

Audience

Laboratory leadership, managers, supervisors, quality manager, and others with responsibility for managing risks and directing quality management system activities.

Duration

4 CE credits available

Course Preview

Quality Culture

This course provides an adaptable program for proactively shaping the culture of your organization. It includes video commentary by CAP member pathologists.

Included is a unique Culture Assessment Tool that helps laboratory leadership get a picture of where your organization needs to improve and where it is strong. This tool helps make culture change a reality.

Audience

Laboratory medical directors, administrative directors, quality managers, and other leaders who can affect the culture of their laboratory through their decisions and actions

Duration

4 CE credits available

Additional Resources

Course Poster
Our course poster summarizes the key concepts.
Download the Quality Culture poster

Course Preview

Root Cause Analysis

Learn real-world methodology to conduct a root cause analysis, along with the tools necessary to implement it.

Learn from actual examples of complete root causes analysis based on projects in laboratories like yours. You will even perform key steps based on a participant case study.

Includes the RCA Performance and Feedback Toolkit, a set of tools an organization can use to guide and assess root cause analysis projects.

Audience

Laboratory quality managers, supervisors, and root cause analysis team members, as well as medical and administrative leaders who want to permanently solve problems and prevent recurring deficiencies

Duration

6 CE credits available

Additional Resources

Course Poster
Our course poster summarizes the key concepts. 
Download the Root Cause Analysis poster

Course Preview

Mistake Proofing

Increase your ability to design new processes, modify existing processes, minimize mistakes, and manage your risks.

This course provides methodology focused on five main categories of mistake-proofing tactics and shows examples of these tactics from the domain of laboratory medicine.

It includes video commentary by CAP member pathologists with experience using Lean and other process improvement techniques

Audience

Laboratory quality managers as well as medical and administrative leaders who are responsible for managing risk and minimizing mistakes in the laboratory

Duration

4 CE credits available

Additional Resources

Course Poster
Our course poster summarizes the key concepts. 
Download the Mistake Proofing Poster.

Course Preview

Internal Auditing

Increase your capabilities for internal auditing with a proven methodology for process audits, tracer audits, and laser audits.

Learn how to prepare for interviews, communicate findings to your quality management team, and use audits to drive process improvements.

The course provides detailed, real-world examples you can use to build your own audit plans, plus multimedia presentations of key concepts.

Audience

Laboratory quality managers, supervisors, and others who will serve as internal auditors, as well as medical and administrative leaders who want to proactively identify risks, solve problems, and improve processes in their laboratories

Duration

3 CE credits available

Additional Resources

Course Poster
Our course poster summarizes the key concepts. 
Download the Internal Auditing Poster.

Course Preview

Management Review

This course interprets the ISO 15189 requirements for management review.

The CAP’s ISO 15189 assessors discuss how to structure the review meeting, communicate results of quality assessments, and prompt strategic decisions from management—all in the context of the overall health of your organization.

Audience

Laboratory quality managers who will organize management review meetings, as well as medical and administrative leaders who want to institute practices that will solve problems and promote continuous improvement

Duration

2 CE credits available

Course Preview

Quality Manual Development

This course provides guidance on how to go beyond a quality plan to develop a manual that organizes and communicates your laboratory’s quality management system.

You will see an example of an effectively structured and written manual so you can organize and create your own.

Plus, the CAP’s ISO 15189 assessors show you approaches to link your quality policy to quality objectives and metrics.

Audience

Laboratory quality managers who will develop and maintain the quality manual, as well as medical and administrative leaders who are responsible for quality management system design, documentation, communication, and education

Duration

2 CE credits available

Course Preview

Document Control

This “how-to” course on document control systems details how to control documents in a way that meets ISO 15189 requirements, how to accomplish document control even with minimal resources (such as spreadsheets), and how document control contributes to cost containment.

Audio recordings of the CAP’s ISO 15189 assessors provide examples and commentary on common pitfalls and issues.

Audience

Laboratory quality managers who will design, implement, and maintain a document control system, supervisors, as well as medical and administrative leaders who are responsible for document control oversight

Duration

2 CE credits available

Additional Resources

Course Poster
Our course poster summarizes the key concepts. 
Download the Document Control Poster

Course Preview

QMS Implementation Roadmap

This course outlines the practical steps necessary to build, implement, and maintain a quality management system that meets the ISO 15189 standard.

Video recordings of the CAP’s ISO 15189 assessors provide perspective on best practices and pitfalls.

Audience

Laboratory quality managers, medical and administrative directors, and executive decision makers who are considering implementing the ISO 15189 program in their laboratories

Duration

2 CE credits available

Current participants of CAP Accreditation Programs have complimentary access to this course through e-LAB Solutions Suite

Course Preview

15189 Walkthrough

For laboratories considering implementation of an ISO 15189 program, this course summarizes each of the main clauses of the ISO standard, clarifying the intent of the clause and the key requirements.

See video recordings of the CAP’s ISO 15189 assessors who offer context and examples of how technical problems relate to more fundamental deficiencies in the quality management system.

Audience

Laboratory quality managers, medical and administrative directors, and executive decision makers who are considering implementing the ISO 15189 program in their laboratories

Duration

2 CE credits available

Current participants of CAP Accreditation Programs have complimentary access to this course through e-LAB Solutions Suite

Course Preview

CAP 15189 Accreditation Process