Status of Quality Control for Laboratory Tests of Medical Institutions in Korea: Analysis of 10 Years of Data on External Quality Assessment Participation

Abstract

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. 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. This result would be used for health policymaking on the quality improvement of laboratory tests.