AFIX Assessment: Lot Quality Assurance

What is Lot Quality Assurance?

Lot Quality Assurance (LQA) is a sampling approach that is often used in industry to identify defective products efficiently. This approach is relatively easy to perform and can be done using small sample sizes. In brief, this method consists of the establishment of acceptable and unacceptable performance thresholds in which selected units either fall in the categories of "Pass" or "Fail." With immunization coverage as the intervention, a "lot" would represent a provider practice. Once a target population is defined (e.g., 19 to 35 month old children), the threshold levels for classifying the selected lots would be identified preferably with local input.

Since it is often difficult or impossible to assess all practices, LQA can be used as a screening tool to help identify those practices that may benefit most from an in-depth diagnostic assessment. Using LQA, only those practices that fall below the acceptable threshold would be the ones that would receive a detailed follow-up Assessment. Lot quality assurance uses small sample sizes and can be an efficient way to allocate Assessment resources.

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