Quality Control & Process Improvement Flashcards
7 cards from real CET practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Quality Control & Process Improvement flashcards as text
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) in an echo lab workflow is used to:
Answer: Proactively identify potential process failures before they cause harm
FMEA is a prospective risk assessment tool that identifies potential failure modes, their causes, and effects before a problem occurs, enabling preventive action.
The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) is most appropriate for assessing:
Answer: The degree of agreement between two continuous measurement methods or raters
ICC quantifies the reliability and agreement between two or more raters or methods measuring the same continuous variable, commonly used for echocardiographic reproducibility studies.
Which of the following BEST describes the concept of 'lean' methodology in echocardiography lab management?
Answer: Eliminating waste in processes to maximize value delivered to patients
Lean methodology focuses on identifying and eliminating non-value-added steps (waste) in workflows to improve efficiency, quality, and patient value.
When calibrating Doppler velocity measurements using a phantom, the measured velocity of a known-velocity flow target should be within what generally accepted tolerance?
Answer: ±5% of the known value
Most physics phantom QC protocols accept Doppler velocity accuracy within ±5% of the known reference velocity as a passing criterion.
A new echocardiography technician consistently measures left ventricular internal diameter (LVIDd) at a plane slightly apical to the true minor axis. This error is best classified as:
Answer: Systematic operator error from incorrect imaging plane selection
Consistently measuring off-axis due to incorrect plane selection is a systematic operator error that produces predictably biased measurements rather than random variation.
Which metric would BEST reflect the efficiency of an echocardiography lab's scheduling and workflow process?
Answer: Average door-to-image time or study turnaround time
Turnaround time and door-to-image time directly measure how efficiently the lab moves patients through the workflow from arrival to completed study.
During a quality audit, a reviewer finds that 15% of studies lack documentation of heart rate at the time of acquisition. The BEST immediate quality improvement action is:
Answer: Add heart rate as a required field in the acquisition protocol checklist
Embedding a required field in the protocol checklist creates a system-level barrier against omission, which is more effective than individual retraining alone.