Full blood count – internal QC protocol: a review by the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Quality Assurance Programs (RCPAQAP) Pty Ltd – Haematology

Introduction: The RCPAQAP (Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Quality Assurance Program) Haematology has undertaken an exercise to review the internal quality control protocol for full blood count (FBC) instrumentation as well as review the action taken by laboratories when nonconforming results are evident in the RCPAQAP proficiency testing reports. Method: A questionnaire was sent to laboratories enrolled in the RCPAQAP FBC module. Laboratories were asked to provide information with regard to the type of control measures used within their testing environment that would trigger alerts for nonconforming events. The questionnaire also reviewed the action taken by laboratories in response to nonconforming test results in their external QA reports. Results: A total of 253 of the 850 laboratories enrolled in the FBC module returned a response to the questionnaire, which identified variation in the QC protocol used to identify nonconforming events on the FBC analyser, including the type of controls, control levels processed and the frequency of use. Conclusion: This questionnaire identified variation in the internal QC protocol used by laboratories, including the types of control measures used and the rules applied to identify nonconforming events. However, the majority of laboratories appear to follow the most favourable choice of actions supplied when reviewing results of external QA data.