• According to Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), QC samples must be assayed once every 24 hours, or more frequently if recommended by the manufacturer.
• Laboratories can assay QC samples more frequently if deemed necessary to ensure accurate results.
• QC samples should be assayed after calibration or maintenance of an analyzer to verify correct method performance.
• Blood gas measurements have separate, stricter QC requirements. CLIA requires at least one QC level to be assayed every 8 hours for blood gas measurements.
• In addition to running QC samples every 8 hours for blood gas measurements, Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments also requires that a control sample be run with every patient sample, unless the analyzer calibrates itself every 30 minutes.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Equivalent Quality Control Procedures Brochure #4. Accessed 15 Jan 2014. https://www.cms.gov/CLIA/downloads/6066bk.pdf
