Remote support of an external quality assessment program in 10 laboratories in Bhutan, Uganda, and Malawi: Pathologists Overseas experience between 2009 and 2017.
Am J Clin Pathol
; 162(1): 7-11, 2024 Jul 05.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38387037
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
This article describes Pathologists Overseas (PO) experience supporting external quality assessment (EQA) programs in 10 clinical laboratories across 3 countries between 2009 and 2017.METHODS:
Laboratories were enrolled in the condensed chemical pathology EQA program provided by the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Quality Assurance Program. Participants were given an initial 2- to 4-day in-person training, followed by 1 year of active feedback on performance via emails or phone calls by a PO volunteer.RESULTS:
There were 2 performance metrics percentage of reported results as a measure of compliance and percentage of acceptable reported results as a measure of accuracy. Laboratories demonstrated high compliance with result reporting, with medians of 69.9%, 71.7%, and 81.3% before, during, and after feedback, respectively. Concomitant medians for the percentage of acceptable reported results were 41.2%, 57.3%, and 53.5%, respectively. Six laboratories had low performance in terms of accuracy at baseline (<60%). Active feedback improved the percentage of acceptable reported results for these lower-performing laboratories.CONCLUSIONS:
External quality assessment programs can be successfully adopted long term by laboratories in low-resource settings. Active feedback requires significant time and effort but could be especially beneficial for laboratories with poor baseline performance.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Garantia da Qualidade dos Cuidados de Saúde
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
Africa
/
Asia
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Am J Clin Pathol
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos