Quality Assessment Program for Blood Smear Examination of Health Laboratories in Thailand
Sunan Chamroon MSc*
Affiliation : * Department of Medical Sciences, Ministry of Public Health,Tiwanond Road, Nonthaburi
Objective : Evaluate laboratory performance on blood smear examination among public and private health
laboratories.
Material and Method: External Quality Assessment Scheme (EQAS) for blood smear examination was organized
by the Department of Medical Sciences. The scheme was run in 2005 by sending out six blood smears with
normal and various abnormal types of blood cells. Participants were from 731 public and 181 private hospitals
with hematology laboratories throughout Thailand.
Results : Analysis showed good performance on identification and differentiation of leukemic blast cells and
atypical lymphocytes. In addition, good performance was found in platelets reports. However, unsatisfactory
performance was found on identification of red blood cells morphology.
Conclusion : The present study suggested that the error reported of red blood cell morphology should be
further investigated and the problems for improving laboratories performance solved.
Keywords : External quality assessment scheme, Health laboratory, Blood smear
