External quality assessment scheme in microbiology in India

ABSTRACT: An External Quality assessment Scheme (EQAS) in microbiology was organized for clinical microbiology laboratories in hospitals with departments of medicine, surgery, obstetrics and paediatrics. Currently 29 institutions are EQAS participants. Every 3 months, the laboratories are sent packages containing material for testing and reporting. After 6 rounds of distribution and reporting, the performance of the participating laboratories were reviewed and the results are included in this paper. In the Ziehl-Neelsen staining and reporting and serology the participating laboratories performed very well but many missed identifying cultures of S. typhi, Pneumococci, and E. coli-S. aureus mixture.