The role of regional quality control programs in the practice of laboratory medicine in the United States.

Since their initiation in 1967, Regional Quality Control Programs have expanded, and they are now accessible to all clinical laboratories in the United States. Based on input from large numbers of laboratories analyzing the same lots of control material for chemistry, hematology, and coagulation, the programs provide computer-generated intralaboratory statistics for day-to-day precision and interlaboratory comparative statistics for relative precision and accuracy. Nearly half the clinical laboratories in the United States currently participate in Regional Quality Control Programs in chemistry. These voluntary programs are coordinated by voluntary professional groups or by the manufacturers of control materials. Professionally directed programs are, for the most part, supervised by committees of state pathology societies.