The Three Pillars of Investigation
With our new online troubleshooting guide, here is how you can approach and troubleshoot a post-event issue your laboratory may have encountered:

1. Rule Out the “Human Element” First
   According to our troubleshooting data, many failures aren’t technical at all—they are clerical. Before you tear down your instrument, check the basics.

• Did you check for transcription errors? Verify if results were switched during entry or if decimal points were misplaced.
• Did you use the “< , >” symbols appropriately? A common cause of invalid results is using greater than (>) or less than (<) symbols on results that are actually within the instrument’s reportable range.
• Did you check your Data Submission Report? Always review this report before the due date to ensure no results were left blank (displaying as dashes).

2. Navigate the “Not Scored” Issue
   If your result says “Not Scored” or “Non-Consensus,” you are not quite done with troubleshooting.
   These codes usually require a Self-Assessment per CLIA regulations.

• Small Peer Groups: If your peer group was too small (<10 labs), your result isn’t graded, but you still need to evaluate your performance against the expected result/range and peer data.
  
  
  • The Fix: Use our new resources to document that you reviewed your result against the Event Statistics Report (peer data). This documentation is vital for your next audit.
    
    
• Non-consensus: This means that we did not have the necessary consensus or agreement on the challenge to grade your result. You will need to self-assess against the target or range if available. The Event Notes and Statistics can be helpful to review and locate information to supplement your documentation.

3. Dig into Technical Root Causes
   If clerical and administrative checks pass, it’s time to look at the science. Our new Interactive Troubleshooting Table helps you correlate failures with specific technical events:

• Reagents: Did a reagent lot change occur just before the PT event? Did the QC shift after that change?
• Calibration: Are your SDI values consistently positive or negative (bias)? If your values are drifting outside +/- 1.5 SD, it may be time to recalibrate.
• Did you follow the instructions provided before testing (sample storage, handling, and testing steps)?

Your New Digital Toolkit
Our team of dedicated medical laboratory experts has taken the guesswork out of this process. Our new webpage hosts a suite of tools derived from our expert guides, which include:

• The Flowchart and Table: A visual “Yes/No” step-by-step path and related table to determine if you need to retest or simply document. The table can also be found in an interactive version on the Post Event Troubleshooting Hub to find specific information quickly.
• Corrective Action Worksheet: A checklist-style form that guides you through every variable—from sample storage to staff competency.
• Real-World Examples: See full examples of how to document a failure, including how to write a corrective action narrative for inspectors.
• Post Event Follow-Up Form: This form is designed to help you document any actions in response to not scored, non-consensus, self-assessment, and/or failure situations.

Current customers with WSLH Proficiency Testing can also access the new Post Event Troubleshooting and Follow-up webpage from the Help and Resources tab within your PT Central account.

These tools are not intended to replace your internal protocols, but to support you in creating audit-ready documentation and ensuring your testing system is secure. Don’t let a flagged result become a compliance headache. Turn it into proof of your laboratory’s commitment to quality.

Start Troubleshooting at the New Hub Here: (https://wslhpt.org/post-event-troubleshooting)