EQA should not be a competition of which laboratory in the scheme performs best. The goal of EQA should be to test the ability of each individual laboratory to accurately perform a test and to produce a reliable result.

Instead of making the best staff member perform the examination of EQA samples and rechecking the results several times before submitting them, it is much more instructive when each time a different staff member (that is authorized to perform the test) performs the examination of EQA samples. This reflects much more the actual situation of how laboratory testing on normal patient samples is performed. Although the percentage of correct results may be lower using this method, it provides you with a much better idea of the real situation in the laboratory and many more opportunities for improvement.

Moreover, this method provides an opportunity to easily and objectively test the technical competence of staff members. Therefore, construct a schedule ensuring that each staff member performs an analysis on an EQA panel (regardless of test) at least once per year.

Tip: to optimize the learning effect of EQA, after sending the EQA result back to the organizer, other staff members authorized to perform the examination could also read and discuss the result.