Data from Inje University Advance Knowledge in Health and Medicine (Status of Quality Control for Laboratory Tests of Medical Institutions in Korea: Analysis of 10 Years of Data on External Quality Assessment Participation)

2020 APR 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Hospital & Nursing Home Daily -- Researchers detail new data in Health and Medicine. According to news reporting originating from Goyang, South Korea, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “External quality assessment (EQA) is a commonly used tool to track the performance of laboratory tests. In Korea, EQA participation is not mandatory, and even basic data about EQA participation are not available.”

Financial support for this research came from Konkuk University.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Inje University, “We used data of a 10-year period extracted from two databases (2009-2018): (1) the database of the National Health Insurance Service to calculate the number of medical institutions that claimed health insurance benefits, and (2) the database of the Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service to calculate the number of medical institutions participating in EQA. The proportion of institutions that made claims for the performance of laboratory testing throughout the 10 years were 73.6%-76.0% for clinics, 91.9%-97.5% for long-term care hospitals, 97.9%-99.5% for small to medium hospitals, 99.6%-100% for general hospitals, and 100% for tertiary hospitals. The mean EQA participation rate of institutions that performed laboratory testing for the 10 years was 1.9% for clinics, 3.1% for long-term care hospitals, 27.7% for small to medium hospitals, 96.6% for general hospitals, and 100% for tertiary hospitals. The mean EQA participation of clinics, long-term care hospitals, and small to medium hospitals are increasing but is still not sufficient. Regulatory approaches are needed to increase participation rates.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “This result would be used for health policymaking on the quality improvement of laboratory tests.”

For more information on this research see: Status of Quality Control for Laboratory Tests of Medical Institutions in Korea: Analysis of 10 Years of Data on External Quality Assessment Participation. Healthcare, 2020;8(2):75. (CSIRO Publishing - www.publish.csiro.au; Healthcare - http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/241.htm)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting S. Kim, Dept. of Laboratory Medicine, Inje University, Ilsan Paik Hospital, Goyang 10380, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include H. Kim, Y.M. Yun, T.H. Um, J. Chang, K.S. Lee, S. Chun, K.D. Cho and T.H Han.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8020075. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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