Appraising the performance of medical technologists in a clinical laboratory.

Medical technologists and their coworkers serve as a critical link in the delivery of health care, yet their performance typically is appraised in a traditional way, causing stress for both managers and workers. Drawing on Total Quality Management concepts, this article proposes a framework for appraising performance in a clinical laboratory context and shows how it can be used to address the problems that managers face in providing constructive appraisals to laboratory personnel.