Virginia Law

A. Internal audits.

1. The laboratory shall arrange for annual internal audits to verify that its operations continue to comply with the requirements of the laboratory's quality system. It is the responsibility of the quality assurance officer to plan and organize audits as required by a predetermined schedule and requested by management.

2. Trained and qualified personnel who are, wherever resources permit, independent of the activity to be audited shall carry out these audits. Personnel shall not audit their own activities except when it can be demonstrated that an effective audit will be carried out.

3. Where the audit findings cast doubt on the correctness or validity of the laboratory's calibrations or test results, the laboratory shall take immediate corrective action.

4. A laboratory may have an audit performed under contract by an outside source competent to audit the laboratory's operations.

B. Managerial review.

1. The laboratory management shall conduct a review, at least annually, of its quality system and its testing and calibration activities to ensure its continuing suitability and effectiveness and to introduce any necessary changes or improvements in the quality system and laboratory operations.

2. The review shall take account of reports from managerial and supervisory personnel, the outcome of recent internal audits, assessments by external bodies, the results of inter-laboratory comparisons or proficiency tests, corrective actions and other relevant factors.

3. The laboratory shall have a procedure for review by management and maintain records of review findings and actions.

4. Where the staff of a laboratory is limited to a single analyst, a supervisor may perform a managerial review.

C. Audit review. All audit and review findings and any corrective actions that arise from them shall be documented. The laboratory management shall ensure that these actions are discharged within the agreed timeframe as indicated in the quality manual or standard operating procedures or both. For clarification, documentation of audit and review findings should be a simple procedure, essentially a memorandum setting out the findings of the audit and managerial review and any action to follow.

D. Corrective actions.

1. In addition to providing acceptance criteria and specific protocols for corrective actions in the method standard operating procedures, the laboratory shall implement general procedures to be followed to determine consistently when departures from documented policies, procedures and quality control have occurred. These procedures may include but are not limited to the following:

a. Identify the individual or individuals responsible for assessing each quality control data type;

b. Identify the individual or individuals responsible for initiating or recommending corrective actions or both;

c. Define how the analyst shall treat a data set if the associated quality control measurements are unacceptable;

d. Specify how out-of-control situations and subsequent corrective actions are to be documented; and

e. Specify procedures for management (including the quality assurance officer) to review corrective action plans.

2. To the extent possible, samples shall be reported only if all quality control measures are acceptable. If a quality control measure is found to be out of control, and the data are to be reported, all samples associated with the failed quality control measure shall be reported with the appropriate data qualifiers.