Quality management of the newborn screening network: the Chinese experience

In current healthcare services, quality assurance, quality control, quality evaluation, and quality improvement are frequently used quality management concepts; this is also the case for NBS services. A single NBS system is a multidimensional and systematic healthcare process involving multiple services of publicity, education, screening (specimen collection and delivery, laboratory testing and reporting), follow-up (including abnormal results notification, recall of suspected patients, tracking and confirmatory testing), diagnosis (clinical and biochemical evaluation), and management (treatment monitoring and long-term follow-up), crossing numerous institutions and diverse personnel, including midwives, nurses, laboratorians, pediatricians, and maternal and child healthcare workers. For the NBS agencies, the QIS-NBS includes three first-tier indicators, 15 second-tier indicators, and 68 third-tier indicators covering the aspects of institutional setting, personnel, laboratory construction, information system construction, pretesting publicity and education, pretesting quality, laboratory testing quality, post-testing quality management, specimen preservation, case management, follow-up, treatment effect, and medical records management. Therrell et al[6] described the Performance Evaluation and Assessment Scheme (PEAS) in the USA, which is considered a well-developed quality management program providing an advanced experience of NBS quality management in the developed world.