Microbiology laboratories in Alberta, Canada, were surveyed to determine the quantitative interpretive criteria used to routinely read and report Gram stains. There was a wide variability in the quantitative reporting criteria cited for both cells and bacteria, with only 11 of 32 (34.4%) laboratories surveyed using the criteria recommended by the external proficiency-testing program. Lack of st...

Public concern over increasing health-care costs plus dramatized testing errors, has resulted in CLIA '88 with its more stringent rules governing laboratory performance. The purpose of the 1990 U.S. Health Care Financing Administration Final Rules for Proficiency Tests is to separate the quality laboratory from the poorly performing one. From the perspective of total quality management, the cus...

A comparative study of proficiency testing models in immunohaematology has been carried out between the United Kingdom National External Quality Assessment Scheme and the Laboratory Proficiency Testing Program of the Ontario Medical Association, using material supplied by both programmes to laboratories in the United Kingdom and Ontario. The results suggest that the general standard of performa...

Abstract In this work, the development and optimization of a secondary method for pH measurement using differential potentiometric cell are described. The was optimized validated by three certified primary buffer solutions (CRMs) with nominal values 4.005, 6.865 9.180 at 25 °C. applied to assess homogeneity stability phosphate solution 7.000 °C which will be used as test item in proficiency tes...

A proficiency testing panel for detecting antibodies against Brucella abortus was developed and evaluated by both primary binding and conventional serological tests, using the guidelines of the World Organisation for Animal Health and the International Organization for Standardization Guide 43-1. All serological tests were judged satisfactory. Among the primary binding tests, the competitive en...