External quality assessment reports: Six years experiences as a participating blood center from Turkey

Purpose: Quality assurance in blood bank contains active participation in the external quality program. The participation in external quality assessment scheme (EQAS) is not mandatory in Turkey but we participated in the EQAS in 2011 to improve our transfusion service in terms of performance evaluation, patient care and safety issues. Therefore, in the current study we evaluated our EQAS test results of six years, from 2012 to 2018. Materials and Methods: Test results of blood samples such as ABO grouping, antibody screening, antibody typing, phenotyping of minor erythrocyte antigens, cross match tests and were analyzed with gel card method (Diamed, Switzerland) and transfusion transmitted infection (HBsAg, Anti-HCV, Anti-HIV were automatically performed with ELISA method (Abbott Architect i1000sr, USA). The results were sent to the external quality control program system for evaluation and the results reported back to us were evaluated retrospectively. Results: The results indicated that the correct rates of ABO grouping, RhD grouping, antibody screening/typing, phenotyping of minor erythrocyte antigens, cross match and transfusion transmitted infection tests found as 100%. No false positives or false negatives were detected. Conclusion: We obtained excellent results in the last six years’ experience, and we recommend all laboratories and hospitals to participate in the EQAS program, which will be helpful for improving the quality of the participating laboratories.