文摘
Quality Management Program–Laboratory Services (QMP–LS) is a mandatory external quality assessment (EQA) and accreditation programme for laboratories in Ontario. This report summarizes performance of Ontario laboratories on QMP–LS enteric parasitology EQA surveys and compares this performance over time. The results reported by participating laboratories were assessed against the expected results as determined by reference or referee laboratories. The number of laboratories licensed for parasitology decreased dramatically over the 20 years. On average, more than 80 % of participants and often more than 90 % were able to detect and identify the species and stages for the majority of parasites. Many of the challenges contained multiple parasites and about half contained low numbers, which affected performance on individual samples. The level of performance by Ontario laboratories on parasitology EQA surveys was consistently high over the 20 years. The parasites that presented the most difficulty were Enteromonas hominis and Trichomonas hominis.