Question

Why is quality assurance in glucose testing so important?How might quality assurance affect patient results and care?

Answer 1

Blood sugar testing is an important part of diabetes care. The control of analytical quality of self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) procedure in diabetes management. This control procedure should be easily accessible to patients, convenient, not time-consuming, and provide a reliable assessment of glucose meter performance.  Quality control (QC) procedures to minimize clinically relevant errors related to POC BG testing are of critical importance to patient safety.The purpose of CBGM was to provide a timely and accurate measurement of a pa-tient's blood glucose.Quality control is a measure of precision or how well the measurement system reproduces the same result over time and under varying operating conditions.

Controls should have target values that are close to medical decision points.Quantitative tests should include a minimum of one control with a target value in the healthy person reference interval and a second control with a target value that would be seen in a sick patient.It is important to record every quality control value, including those that are out of control