CEQA offers full web based EQA, from registration and EQA enrolment to disseminating EQA results.
Full EQAs consist of two cases and are scored for performance – satisfactory or poor. A satisfactory performance is the standard laboratories should achieve. A poor performance designation means that the laboratory’s performance fell below satisfactory standards. Pilot EQAs will only consist of one case and will NOT be scored for performance.
Occasionally an additional educational EQA case may be provided. Completion of this case is optional and the results will not be marked but. ISCN and exemplary reports for these cases will be included in the Scheme Summary Report for participants’ information.
Throughout the EQA cycle the Scheme Office will send emails to participants reminding them of important dates (e.g. opening/closing date of EQA, availability of ILR etc). While every care is taken by the Scheme Office to notify all registered participants it remains the participating laboratory’s responsibility to ensure that all staff involved in the EQA process are aware of the deadlines and check the website regularly for updates.
The CEQA EQA process can be broken down into the following steps:
Enrolment
Participants are notified by email once enrolment is available online. Enrolment for this year closes on Tuesday, 2nd May 2013
EQA
Automatic reminders are sent once the EQAs are available online and all information relating to the EQAs is communicated by email or available for download. Participants are sent reminders of the impending closing date one week as well as one day prior to the deadline. PLEASE NOTE: The Scheme Office takes every care to ensure that all reminder emails reach all participants; however, it is the participating laboratory's responsibility to ensure that all email addresses on the system are correct and staff involved in the EQA are aware of the relevant dates. These dates can be found on the EQA timetable as well as on the secure website.
Assessment
Once the EQA is closed, submissions are assessed by a panel of expert assessors.
Results.
All EQA results will be available to download from the website approximately 5 months after the EQA has closed. These results comprise of a Draft Individual Laboratory Report (ILR) for each EQA which contains a summary of analytical and interpretative scores; educational comments on the submitted individual reports which may incur penalties; general comments, recommendations and performance status. In addition a Summary Report published at the same time as the ILR giving model results and other EQA related information and allowing laboratories to benchmark their performance with the help of a score chart. The ISCN results will be published online shortly after the EQA has closed. Again an email alert will be sent to participants once they are available.
Appeals
Participants have 15 days from the date of publication of the ILR to appeal their results. If you wish to appeal, please download the form from the website, complete the ‘Participants’ Section on your computer and re-upload the form to the website. Appeals received after the deadline stated on the website will not be considered. All appeals are considered by the Steering Committee. The decision of the Committee is final.
Final ILR
Once the outcome of the appeals process is completed, the final ILR will be published on the website. For laboratories whose appeal has been successful the ILR will change, for all other participants there will be no changes. Participants will be notified once the final ILRs are available online.
Certificates
The following certificates are available to download from the website:
Registration certificate - once the EQA has started. Participation certificate – once the EQA has closed Performance certificate – once all final EQA results have been published. Participants will be informed by email once the each certificate is available.
