Kate is the director of the laboratory at Smithville Hospital. The CEO announces that the hospital will be initiating quality management training for all managers next week. "Another interruption," Kate murmurs to herself, "I could be getting some work done!" An employee enters her office stating "I've got Dr. Jones on the line, mad as a hatter. He says no one ever told him that we don't process the PKU test in-house. He wanted the results today so he could plan treatment, but they won't be back from Quest until Friday." Kate shrugs "Did he ever ask? Can I read his mind?" The employee leaves quickly. Kate then goes to lunch; in the cafeteria she's joined by a lab supervisor who says "Boss I'm not too sure the tests for influenza are picking up all positives. The units are complaining that they have symptomatic patients who our results indicate are negative." "How often is it happening?" Kate asks. "Once or twice a hundred tests, I'd say." "That's fine" Kate replies, "they can't ask for better than that." When she gets back to the lab she finds Tom mopping up blood from a leaking transfusion bag. "Why don't you have on your gloves and glasses?" she asks. Tom replies without looking up "Since we switched to the cheaper ones you picked the gloves split all the time and the new, less expensive goggles don't fit us. So what's the point?" Kate responds irritably "Well watch yourself or you'll get blood on you and end up on sick leave like Henry."

a. Explain how Kate's comments about Dr. Jones indicate a lack of understanding of the definition of quality accepted in quality management.

b. Explain why Kate's comments about influenza testing show a lack of understanding of the performance standard accepted by practitioners of quality management.

c. Explain how Kate's decision regarding the purchase of gloves does not display understanding of how and why prevention is practiced to assure quality.

d. Explain how Kate's last comment to Tom indicates a lack of understanding of the costs of doing things wrong.