External Quality Assurance is one aspect of a quality management system in a laboratory and a requirement for accreditation. This project was designed to determine if the regular EQA that
laboratories perform can be used to identify unacceptable performance earlier than the usual 3 year NATA accreditation cycle, to help to minimise risk to patients.
Monitoring performance of EQA has been demonstrated to be achievable during this project. How well the benchmarks correlate with what NATA consider “high intensity” laboratories, where additional follow‐up of non‐conformance is required, requires further investigation. Based on the findings of this study the following recommendations are submitted for consideration:
Recommendation 1
A workshop is convened with key participants (e.g. Biochemistry QA coordinators, Quality Managers) to review the use of Chemical Pathology KPI reports and models for monitoring performance of EQA.
Recommendation 2
A study of Chemical Pathology KPIs and correlation with NATA assessment reports is established prospectively.
Recommendation 3
Working parties are established urgently between the professional organisations of Pathology including RCPA QAP, RCPA, NPAAC and DoHA to consider and advise on matters arising from the Anatomical Pathology review including:
- Enrolment in diagnostic Anatomical Pathology EQA for laboratories
- Guidelines for performing diagnostic EQA in laboratories
- Whether assessing performance rather than just participation results in greater collusion and decrease in exposure of interesting cases.
- Standardisation and documentation of selection of cases and assessment of reports
Document download
This publication is available as a downloadable document.
The Role of External Quality Assurance in Identifying Poor Laboratory Performance(PDF 518 KB)