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Record the day’s control values against each material and ClinikEHR evaluates every run for you. The page says so in its own subtitle: “Record daily controls per material; every run is evaluated against Westgard rules (1-3s, 2-2s, R-4s, 4-1s, 10x — 1-2s warns) the moment it’s saved.” You enter a number; you get back a verdict and a charted point. The verdict is computed when you save. Nobody on the screen decides whether a run passed — you cannot mark a rejected run as acceptable, and you do not apply the rules yourself.

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What you’re looking at

The page is one screen in three stacked parts. Every historical run carries a badge — In control, Warning (1-2s) or Rejection — and the chart colours each point to match, with its value and any violated rules on hover. The empty state. A brand-new lab has no materials, so the page reads No control materials yet. Add your first control (analyte, target mean and SD from the package insert or your lot validation) to start charting. A material that exists but has never been run reads No runs recorded yet for this control — record the first run below. Below Professional Lab you see none of it — just a locked card.

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Set up a control material

Do this once per analyte and level.
1

Open the dialog

Select Add control material. It opens explaining where the numbers come from: “Target mean and SD come from the package insert or your lot validation — Westgard rules evaluate every run against them.”
2

Identify the control

Enter an Analyte code (for example GLU), a Material name (for example Glucose Control), and pick the Level — Level 1 (normal), Level 2 (abnormal) or Level 3 (high). Add the Lot number so the picker can tell two lots of the same control apart.
3

Enter the targets

Fill Target mean, Target SD and Unit (for example mg/dL). Take all three from the package insert or from your own lot validation, never from memory. The SD must be greater than zero — it is what every z-score is measured in.
4

Save

Select Add material. The toast reads Control material added and the control joins the picker.

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Record a run

1

Choose the control

Pick it from Select control material. The Levey-Jennings chart redraws for that material.
2

Enter the measured value

Type the reading into Measured value. The field’s placeholder is the target mean, so a value far from it is visible before you save.
3

Name who ran it

Enter the person in Technician. It is the column a reviewer reads first when a run fails.
4

Record it

Select Record run. The run is evaluated against every Westgard rule as it saves, and comes back with one of three verdicts.

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The three verdicts

A rejected run means stop. Do not report patient results on that analyte until you have found and fixed the cause and a fresh control passes. The verdict names the rules it broke so you know what you are looking for.

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What each rule is telling you

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Who can do this

Your plan decides whether Quality Control exists; role decides whether it appears in your sidebar. There is no permission gate on this page at all. There is no permission for QC review. A toggle named Review QC runs sat in the Diagnostics catalogue until August 2026; nothing on this page or in the Quality Control report ever read it, so granting it changed nothing and withholding it locked nobody out. It was removed. The paid feature is the whole gate, and your local procedure decides who records controls, not the software. QC Officer is review-only by design in every other respect: the role inspects work rather than altering it, and holds nothing that lets it touch a patient result. The three access tiers decide the last two rows. Own bench grants result entry only; Whole lab adds accessioning, rejection, verification and QC review at that site; All sites grants everything, across every site. Managing the lab is not the same as authorising a result — a Lab Manager does not get entry, verification or amendment by virtue of managing. Two behaviours surprise people:
  • Enforcement is opt-in, per person. Somebody never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted, and the sheet warns “Saving starts enforcing”.
  • A denied action is recorded; an allowed one is not. Where a QC figure is not yours to see, it renders hidden or as a dash — never as a zero.
See Permissions.

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Check it worked

  • The toast names the verdict and the z-score.
  • A new point appears on the Levey-Jennings chart, coloured for its verdict.
  • The run heads the table below the chart with its Verdict badge and the technician’s name.

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Common issues

You are on Starter Lab. The card reads QC management is a Professional feature — Daily controls with Levey-Jennings charts and automatic Westgard flagging. Included from the Professional Lab plan. See Change your plan.
The toast reads Analyte, name, target mean and a positive SD are required. An SD of zero or blank is the usual cause.
The targets belong to the old lot. Add the new lot as its own control material with its own mean and SD. New reagent lots are also quarantined until validated — see Reagents and consumables.
Either Measured value is blank, or no material is picked in Select control material. The message covers both, so check the picker before you retype the number.
It reads No runs recorded yet for this control — record the first run below. The material exists but has no history.
That is deliberate — see Who can do this above. Entering and authorising results are separate grants, see Enter and verify results.
Quality control management is still rolling out and reaches labs progressively on the Professional Lab plan. If your plan includes it and the entry is absent, contact support.

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FAQ

Not on this screen. The verdict is computed when the run is saved and there is no accept-anyway control. Fix the cause, run a fresh control, and report once that one passes.
Whatever your method and your accreditation body require — usually two, a normal and an abnormal. Each level is its own control material with its own mean and SD, so Level 1 (normal) and Level 2 (abnormal) chart separately.
The control’s package insert, or your own lot validation once you have enough runs to establish in-house values. They are not calculated for you, and they are what every z-score and every rule is measured against.
No. QC is the evidence, not a lock — releasing a report is a separate, deliberate act by someone holding Verify and authorise results. Reading QC before signing out is a habit your procedures have to enforce.
Both are oversight of how the lab performs rather than changes to a patient record, so they travel together — see Turnaround time.