Organizing for Quality Assurance

Abstract

The previous chapters have discussed most of the necessary elements of a good quality assurance program. This chapter is concerned with the planning and organizing that must be done to establish such a program in an existing laboratory, which may have some of the elements but not all. Many laboratories have various aspects of quality control in place but are deficient in quality assurance. Quality control is generally nothing but good scientific practice, but the elements of documentation, sample control, traceability, and so on, are often woefully lacking in many laboratories.