Lab increases accountability by all staff by implementing non-conforming event software

Twice named MLO’s Lab of the Year, this multi-state health system with a large academic medical center prides itself on always leveraging the latest technologies and treatments to drive patient outcomes. However, they were struggling with the management of events and incidents within its many lab sites and locations, so they turned to MediaLab by Vastian for help.

‍The challenge‍

This health system was using a homegrown system to document occurrences. It was cumbersome, hard to pull data and make sense of it, and only as good as what people entered. The team struggled to close the loop, resolve the problem, and complete the process. Their HLA was very paper-based; they had to scan in documents for signing off remotely from a very disparate location then use a courier system and hope it didn’t get lost in the mail.

‍The solution‍

The health system needed a better way to organize all of their non-conforming events and improve upon the follow-up process without adding more time to their already filled schedule. With IQE, they had one, centralized platform to track and trend NCEs and demonstrate CAPA to accreditation agencies. They utilized the customizable, pre-built templates and data logs to create standardization across all sites and control what data was being entered by the team. With each event, the team consistently walked through each stage of the CAPA lifecycle, documenting evidence and linking new policies as a result of an occurrence.

‍The results‍

With IQE, everything is at their fingertips. Staff are no longer hunting down binders to update a policy. Quality coordinators can analyze trends, review when staff input information, and alert leadership for timely follow-up. IQE empowers their quality team to work through causes and FEMA risk analysis. Their staff find IQE intuitive, encouraging them to immediately document occurrences rather than waiting until the quality team asks for a risk assessment. The entire health system feels much more prepared and IQE has contributed to their cultural shift of being compliant at all times.