Wm. Halbmayer et al., EXTERNAL QUALITY ASSURANCE - AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF THE QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN CLINICAL LABORATORIES, Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, 107(16), 1995, pp. 500-506
An external quality assurance system in the medical diagnostic laborat
ory, which is an essential part of the modern total quality management
(TQM) concept in the public hearth system, was established in Austria
already 25 years ago. The development and the scope of this quality a
ssessment system by the ''Austrian Society for Quality Assurance and S
tandardization of Analyses in the Clinical Laboratory'' (OQUASTA) are
presented. The decreasing coefficients of variation of several paramet
ers of the external quality assessment exercises demonstrate an increa
sing analytical precision and might be interpreted as an effect of thi
s quality assurance system.