Recent studies in many countries however, have shown that the majority of adverse patient incidents occur in the non-analytical phase of the test-request-report cycle. In order to minimise the risk of errors and incidents in pathology, the pre and post analytical phase of testing need to be measured and monitored.

The Key Incident Monitoring & Management Systems (KIMMS) project was initiated by the Quality Assurance Scientific and Education Committee (QASEC) of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. QASEC approached RCPA Quality Assurance Programs to launch the pilot study in 2006.

KIMMS aims to monitor the pre- and post-analytical phase of the laboratory quality systems thus extending measurement of quality to the entire quality system. The project is designed to provide pathology practices with the tools for continuous measurement and monitoring of key incident indicators.