EQA Programme for IDEXX VetLab Analysers

Comply with the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme—perform External Quality Assurance on your in-clinic analysers.

Although monthly internal quality control is very important in determining the day-to-day performance of a biochemistry analyser, External Quality Assurance schemes have the advantage of comparing individual laboratories with others using the same method. This is essentially an assessment of accuracy and precision, with the mean value of the participating laboratories being used as the ‘true’ value of the analyte, and is a requirement for the RCVS Practice Standard Requirements  Scheme - the Core Standards of which are relevant to all veterinary practices, details of which can be found here , and state: 

9.3.8 In addition to internal quality control of automated laboratory tests, external quality assurance, by internal analysis of external samples via a QA scheme, must be routinely undertaken and the results documented and acted on where necessary.  EQA is the analysis of samples by reference to an external laboratory performed by internal analysis of control reagent received from the laboratory through a QA scheme.  This should also be undertaken for tests carried out using Point of Care (POC) devices.  The frequency of testing should be related to the number of tests undertaken. It is expected that this will be at least quarterly.

Many other schemes available for the veterinary profession rely on the external comparison of In House Analyser results against Reference Laboratory analyser results for the same sample – a practice that is not only inaccurate but is also not classed as External Quality Assurance by definition.

The IDEXX EQA Scheme however is a true measure of External Quality Assurance, and as an EQA member you will be:

• Sent blind biochemistry samples which you can analyse on your IDEXX Catalyst analyser.
• Return your results to IDEXX and we will perform a statistical evaluation comparing your results to those of other participating practices to ensure your IDEXX chemistry analysers are performing correctly.
• Contacted and any issues will be identified and resolved on an individual basis.