EQA Outcomes

Individual Laboratory/Centre Report (ILR/ICR) detailing the scores and educational feedback specific to the individual laboratory are published approximately three months after the submission deadline for the EQA.

ILRs give the result, score and performance designation for each EQA. Pilot and exploratory pilot EQAs are marked and scored but no performance designation is applied. ILRs are designed to be stand alone, informative and easy to interpret. Reports share the following features:

• Analytical/genotyping, interpretative and clerical accuracy scores;
• Educational feedback comments on the submitted individual reports (some may incur a deduction of marks);
• General comments and recommendations;
• Performance designation.

Results for any EQA distribution should be checked to ensure that they correspond to your laboratory’s submission. If there are discrepancies, GenQA should be informed immediately so that the necessary corrections can be made and a new ILR issued.

Participants usually have 15 working days to appeal any penalty points given in their Individual Laboratory/Centre Reports starting from the date the original ILR/ICR is published. Participants wishing to appeal must complete and submit the online appeals form from the associated EQA webpage, prior to the appeals deadline given on the website. Any appeals received after the closing date will not be accepted.

Appeals to comments will not be considered.  No appeals are accepted for pilot EQAs but comments by participants are welcome and can be communicated to GenQA by email (info@genqa.org).

All appeals are reviewed anonymously by the relevant Specialist Advisory Group (SAG) and ratified by consensus. The decision of the SAG is final.

Please note the appeals process may take up to six weeks. Formal notification of the outcome of the appeal will be given to the laboratory by GenQA. If the appeal is successful, an amended ILR will be issued. Any changes to scores/comments following successful appeals will be considered by the relevant SAG and applied to laboratories that did not appeal but were given identical comments/deductions (if applicable).

Poor Performance is incurred for the following reasons (but not exclusive to) and applies to all laboratories:

• Non-submission of results with no acceptable prior notification to GenQA;
• Critical analytical/genotyping error (incorrect result for the patient);
• Critical interpretation error which adversely affects patient management;
• No interpretation of the results;
• Incorrect/inappropriate advice.

All Poor Performance is ratified by the relevant Specialist Advisory Group without disclosing the identity of the laboratory. Laboratories that have received a Poor Performance (classed as ‘amber’) will be asked to perform a root cause analysis and provide a summary of corrective and preventative actions to GenQA for review.

Persistent poor performance is defined as follows:

(a) Those participants who perform poorly in two out of any three consecutive EQAs.

(b) A poor performance within one year following a previous persistent poor performance designation.

Laboratories performing poorly on analysis/genotyping in one round of EQA and interpretation in the next round will be classified in the same way as performing poorly on analysis/genotyping for two rounds of EQA. A participant who has performed poorly for more than one disease/tissue in more than one EQA round may, at the discretion of the GenQA Director, be referred to the relevant SAG or GenQA Advisory Board for Persistent Poor Performance even if they have not met the criteria for Persistent Poor Performance in any individual EQA.