Six-Year Experience (2013-2018) With College of American Pathologists Programs at King Hussein Cancer Center in Jordan

Abstract

Abstract Objectives Proficiency testing (PT) includes interlaboratory comparisons that are organized regularly to assess the performance of individual laboratories for specific tests or measurements and it is used to monitor laboratories’ continuing performance. Background The College of American Pathologists (CAP) requires laboratories to participate in PT programs and to perform the investigation and root cause analysis for unsatisfactory PT results, which is valuable to improve the laboratory performance. Methods The data were extracted from the CAP PT results of the laboratory from 2013 to 2018 in the areas of Biochemistry, Immunology, Hematology, Microbiology, Anatomic Pathology and Cytology, and Blood Bank. The data were PT scores and consisted of values between 0 and 100, representing the percentage of correct response for each analyte. Results There were 211 analytes (502 event) in 2018, 215 analytes (547 event) in 2017, 204 analytes (531 event) in 2016, 210 analytes (519 event) in 2015, 228 analytes (443 event) in 2014, and 158 analytes (528 event) in 2013 that were covered by CAP PT surveys in different laboratory areas. Over the 6 years of experience, there were 57 (1.86%) unsatisfactory results for all PT events. It was seen that the rates of unsatisfactory results in that period were gradually decreased with each year of experience, which was 1.1% (2018), 1.6% (2017), 1.9% (2016), 1.5% (2015), 2.4% (2014), and 2.6% (2013). The top 3 reasons for unacceptable results were random error, analytical error, and procedural error, which accounted for 21.0% random error (2013 (9%), 2014 (4%), 2015, 2016, 2017, & 2018 (2%)), 19.3% analytical error (2013 (2%), 2014 (5%), 2015 (5%), 2016 (3.5%), 2017 (2%), & 2018 (1.8%)), and 17.5% procedural error (2013 (4%), 2014 (4%), 2015 (0%), 2016 (2%), 2017 (5%), & 2018 (3.5%)). Conclusion The proficiency testing performance showed a trend of improvement from 2013 to 2018, which contributed to the improvement of laboratory performance and declining the unacceptable results that affected positively on patient test performance.