Detecting and preventing the occurrence of errors in the practices of laboratory medicine and anatomic pathology: 15 years' experience with the College of American Pathologists' Q-PROBES and Q-TRACKS programs

Since 1989, the College of American Pathologists (CAP) Q-PROBES Program has conducted more than 100 outcome studies that have determined benchmarks of quality performance in the practices of laboratory medicine and anatomic pathology. Many of these studies have provided benchmarks for the frequency with which errors occur during all phases of laboratory testing and have determined practices by which laboratory personnel have been able to lower those frequencies. Protocols designed to reduce errors must include provisions not only to prevent them from occurring, but also to catch them when they do. Once error detection systems are established, service providers can gauge their success by monitoring the extent to which health care workers perform required procedures and services achieve their intended outcomes.