The Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (WVDL), with facilities located in Madison and Barron, WI, provides a broad range of testing and diagnostic services for veterinarians and producers for all types of animals, including fish. In addition to samples from both food and companion animal veterinarians, the WVDL provides testing to several large industrial clients such as bovine genetics industry and integrated poultry producers.
With an emphasis on services for farm animals, WVDL works with numerous state entities to aid in supporting animal health programmes and disease control programmes.
The Challenge
WVDL is accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD), whose requirements standard is based on ISO 17025, as well as the World Organization for Animal Health (Office International des Epizooties, OIE).
In order to achieve and maintain accreditation to the AAVLD, WVDL was required to establish, implement and maintain a quality system appropriate to the scope of its activities. Their new system would be able to help WVDL meet its training and record retention needs, fit well within the laboratory’s current and future QMS and allow them to document their policies, systems, programmes, procedures and instructions.
After searching for a suitable solution to replace their previous manual processes, WVDL was introduced to Q-Pulse through Gael Ltd’s North American partners, ECL2. Kristin Zuzek, Quality Assurance Manager at WVDL, said: “We initially started looking at software after a self-audit resulted in an opportunity for improvement in training record management. Although we had programmes in place to fully meet the AAVLD requirements, they were somewhat cumbersome and manual. We were ready to make some significant advances in our QMS.
“Gael’s Q-Pulse allowed us to make the improvements necessary to develop a mature, efficient quality system. After identifying its qualities, implementing the solution was the next step for us.”
The Solution
As well as being very user friendly, Q-Pulse could be integrated with a number of WVDL’s current programmes. This meant that it was easy for staff to become comfortable with the solution alongside programmes that they were already used to. Kristin added: "Our new system had to fit well with our current programmes while providing an additional layer of consistency, structure and efficiency. The system also had to have excellent tracking and trending capabilities which would benefit the laboratory. Our employees have varying levels of computer literacy, so whatever system we chose had to help make the transition as painless as possible. We looked at various software programmes and found Q-Pulse to be the best for our organisation.
"Q-Pulse’s flexibility allowed us to customise the system to meet the flow of our already existing programmes. We were also able to use language that our employees were already familiar with. Also, the ability of Q-Pulse to track workload and its automatic messaging capability was outstanding. Everyone in
our organisation is very busy, and it is easy to lose track of everything that needs to be done. The Q-Pulse workload management and messaging is an easy way to make sure that pending tasks are at our fingertips at all times."
Gael’s partners, ECL2, also offered WVDL excellent product knowledge and support. Kristin added: "After numerous product demos from other suppliers of quality management software, it was obvious that ECL2 were passionate and knowledgeable about the product, and very interested in making our experience
a successful one. They were able to offer more than just the introduction to Q-Pulse which was very attractive."
The Result
Q-Pulse is now used across the laboratory with Gael’s solution helping to vastly increase the efficiency of the lab in regards to their processes, procedures, documentation and records retention.
Kristin added: "All of our employees use Q-Pulse. Currently they access the system to retrieve information, initiate non-conformances, record client feedback, access documents and acknowledge procedures. Since many of our employees are involved in developing procedures and equipment management, a large number of staff are also involved in the revision of documents and management of asset activities.
"The implementation of Q-Pulse has already increased the efficiency of our programmes and set a structure for development of a mature quality system. Document Control was previously managed through another software product and, although this was successful to a degree, managing permissions, document revisions, tracking the life of a document and document distribution, was much more manual. We had been using an Excel spread sheet for client feedback, while our Corrective and Preventive Actions were managed using a series of MS Word documents but everything is now managed and automated through Q-Pulse. Q-Pulse has made the retrieval and communication of information very easy and, as a Quality Manager, has made my processes less manual.”