Computerized method and laboratory equipment for fast detection of failure in laboratory equipment

Laboratory equipment for determining out-of-control failures in the equipment to efficiently improve safety for one or more patients, the laboratory equipment comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereon which, when executed by processor, causes the laboratory equipment to perform steps including:
• a) generating results relating to at least one QC level (J) and relating to at least one different diagnostic test, wherein the laboratory equipment is structured to perform multiple different types of diagnostic tests;
• b) receiving a desired probability of false rejection (P̌fr) and a desired error detection rate ĚD relating to one or more QC levels (J) of quality control (QC) samples;
• c) setting a number of runs (R) to one;
• d) calculating an error detection rate (ÊD) based at least on R;
• e) determining if ÊD is below ĚD, and
• if so:
• increasing R by one, and repeating steps d) to e), and
• if not:
• defining a rule for determining out-of-control failures in the laboratory equipment based, at least partially, on R;
• f) collecting standardized QC results through operation of the laboratory equipment structured to perform multiple different types of diagnostic tests, on R runs of QC samples, wherein the R runs of the QC samples is less than a quantity of runs required under Westgard rules to obtain standardized QC results;
• g) applying the rule defined in step e) to the standardized QC results, collected in step f);
• h) determining if out-of-control failures exist in the laboratory equipment that is structured to perform multiple different types of diagnostic tests based on determining whether the standardized QC results generated from the R runs of QC samples comply with the rule;
• and
• interrupting a measurement process of samples to be processed by the laboratory equipment in response to determining, in step h), that an out-of-control failure exists in the laboratory equipment to efficiently improve safety for one or more patients associated with the samples in a bracket of a bracketed quality control system based on less than the quantity of runs required under Westgard rules;
• wherein the laboratory equipment is structured to test a particular substance of a patient's sample.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform steps to efficiently improve safety for one or more patients including:

• a) receiving a desired probability of false rejection (P̌fr) and a desired error detection rate ĚD relating to one or more QC levels (J) of quality control (QC) samples to be processed by laboratory equipment that is structured to perform multiple different types of diagnostic tests to and test a particular substance of a patient's sample;
• b) setting a number of runs (R) to one;
• c) calculating an error detection rate (ÊD) based at least partially on R;
• d) determining if ÊD is below ĚD, and
• if so:
• increase R by one, and repeat steps c) to d), and
• if not:
• define a rule for determining out-of-control failures in the laboratory equipment based, at least partially, on R;
• e) receiving or collecting standardized QC results generated through operation of the laboratory equipment structured to perform multiple different types of diagnostic tests, on R runs of QC samples, wherein the R runs of the QC samples is less than a quantity of runs required under Westgard rules to obtain standardized QC results;
• f) applying the rule defined in step d) to the standardized QC results;
• g) determining if out-of-control failures exist in the laboratory equipment that is structured to perform multiple different types of diagnostic tests based on determining whether the standardized QC results generated from the R runs of QC samples comply with the rule;
• and
• interrupting a measurement process of samples to be processed by the laboratory equipment in response to determining, in step g), that an out-of-control failure exists in the laboratory equipment to efficiently improve safety for one or more patients associated with the samples in a bracket of a bracketed quality control system based on less than the quantity of runs required under Westgard rules.