J Lab Med Qual Assur.  2010 Jun;32(1):95-101.

Annual Report on External Quality Assessment in Blood Bank Tests in Korea (2009)

• Kwon SW
• Kim DW
• Han KS
• Kim HO
• Seo JS
• Cha YJ
• Jeon DS
• Ryang DW
• Park HJ
• Lim YA
• Kwon KC
• Lee SH
• Kang SH
• Hwang YS

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We report here the results of surveys for external quality assessment of blood bank tests performed in 2009.
METHODS
Survey specimens were sent three times to 488, 491 and 490 participant institutes, and the response rates for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trial were 97.7%, 98.0%, and 98.0%, respectively. Test items for the surveys were ABO grouping, Rh (D) typing, crossmatching, direct antiglobulin test, antibody screening and antibody identification test.
RESULTS
The average accuracy rates of ABO grouping and Rh typing were 99.6-100% and 98.5-100%, respectively. In crossmatching test, the accuracy rates were 99.3-99.8% for the compatible samples, 92.7-100% for the incompatible samples, and 92.6-93.1% for the samples which could be detected as incompatible only by antiglobulin method. The accuracy rates of direct antiglobulin test were 98.5-100% for negative samples and 98.1-98.8% for positive samples. The correctresults were reported by 98.0-100% of the surveyed institutions for antibody screening test and 82.9-100% for antibody identification test. Nineteen institutions gave repeatedly incorrect answers for crossmatching test. Eight institutions out of them gave incorrect answers for all the test specimens sent out 3 times last year.
CONCLUSIONS
The overall results of this survey were good, however, it is required that the institutions where the incorrect results were reported should perform corrective actions for quality improvement.

Keyword

Blood bank tests; External quality assessment; Antiglobulin test; Crossmatching

MeSH Terms

Academies and Institutes
Blood Banks
Coombs Test
Korea
Mass Screening
Quality Improvement