External quality control of microbiological testing in Polish medical diagnostic laboratories in 2020

Abstract

<br><b>Introduction:</b>The paper presents the course of external quality control programmes organised in 2020 by the Centre of Quality Control in Microbiology (CQCM), including the 27<sup>th</sup> edition of the Polish National External Quality Assessment Scheme in Microbiology POLMICRO.</br> <br><b>Aim:</b>The assessment of the microbiological diagnostics’ quality carried out by Polish laboratories based on results of the POLMICRO, POLMICRO/MIKOLOGIA (MYCOLOGY), and POLMICRO/SSE programmes.</br> <br><b>Material and methods:</b>The participants’ responses from all rounds conducted in 2020 were analysed, i.e. five rounds of the POLMICRO programme, two rounds of the POLMICRO /MIKOLOGIA programme, and one round of POLMICRO/SSE.</br> <br><b>Results:</b>Positive evaluation in all rounds in the annual cycle were obtained by 90,1% of POLMICRO, 92,5% POLMICRO/MIKOLOGIA, and 100% POLMICRO/SSE participants.</br> <br><b>Conclusions:</b> Laboratories participating in the CQCM programmes demonstrated skills in the identification, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and detection of resistance mechanisms of pathogenic microorganisms. The area of internal quality control of antimicrobial susceptibility testing requires improvement, especially the selection of reference strains.</br>