The cost of quality is more than a management tool. It’s a mindset that should be adopted at every operational level of a laboratory. The implications and cost associated with poor quality, or no quality, create ripple effects well beyond the walls of your laboratory. Adopting a cost of quality mindset helps improve all laboratory operations, which include reducing processing and testing errors and decreasing avoidable expenses that result from having to repeat the work. A laboratory pays for prevention once; however, it pays many times over to resolve recurring problems.