One of the objectives of the project was to develop software for Transfusion and Anatomical Pathology. As outlined previously, software has been developed for Transfusion. The Performance Levels and Cumulative Performance Level are reported to participants. Internal analysis software has been developed to calculate the cumulative performance level and identify those participants that met the criteria for unacceptable performance.
Software for Anatomical Pathology has not progressed to the same stage as Transfusion Software development could not begin until the scoring systems had been established and finalised. Following this process, requirements and specifications needed to be documented, before software development could begin.
RCPA QAP employed two contract staff dedicated to progress the project. After three months one of these contractors dropped to part‐time causing an unanticipated set back.
The RCPA QAP has undertaken a significant transition in software throughout the company. Transfusion had already transferred to the QAP software analysis and reporting platform for the General Compatibility module before the project started. The Anatomical Pathology QAP transition to this software was expected in early 2012 but has experienced some difficulties, delaying this process.
Significant feedback has been received from the Anatomical Pathology community. At the last RCPA QAP Board of Directors meeting in April 2012, it was recommended that the models for Anatomical Pathology be scrutinised again, to take into consideration any proposed changes to the internal running of the APQAP. It would be prudent for this to be done before software is developed for Anatomical Pathology KPIs.
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The Role of External Quality Assurance in Identifying Poor Laboratory Performance(PDF 518 KB)