Quality control performance in a provincial veterinary diagnostic microbiology laboratory system

Area of Science:

• Medical Microbiology
• Clinical Laboratory Science
• Diagnostic Bacteriology

Background:

• Quality control is essential in diagnostic laboratories.
• Ensuring accurate bacteriology testing performance is critical for patient care.
• Standardized assessments help identify areas for improvement in laboratory practices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the performance of bacteriology technologists in a provincial laboratory system.
• To assess the accuracy of organism identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing.
• To identify common sources of error in routine bacteriology procedures.

Main Methods:

• A quality control exercise involving mock specimens was distributed to nine technologists across six laboratories.
• Participants were tasked with identifying all distributed organisms and performing antibiotic susceptibility testing on pathogens.
• Performance was evaluated based on accuracy of identification and error rates in susceptibility testing.

Main Results:

• Out of 117 distributed organisms, 104 were correctly identified, with five incorrect identifications and eight unreported.
• Antibiotic susceptibility testing demonstrated low error rates: <1% very major, <5% major, and <10% minor errors.
• Frequent errors occurred with specific antibiotic classes (penicillins, aminoglycosides, polymyxin, tetracycline) and with fastidious organisms.

Conclusions:

• The provincial laboratory system demonstrated a generally high level of performance in bacteriology testing.
• Areas for targeted training and improvement include susceptibility testing for certain antibiotics and identification of fastidious organisms.
• Continued quality control exercises are vital for maintaining and enhancing laboratory diagnostic accuracy.