1 – Program overview

This external quality assessment program is intended to assess automated systems used to determine blood gases, as well as the other urgent analytes measured with these analysers.

Participating labs can choose to be assessed for all the analytes of this program, or simply a subset of analytes of interest.

For this program, a single kit is used to assess one analyser only (one kit per analyser is required).

2 – Assessment frequency

Number of surveys per year: 4
Number of control samples per survey: 1 or 2
Number of samples per year: 6

3 – List of analytes assessed 

• pH
• pCO₂
• pO₂
• Bicarbonate
• Ionised calcium
• Chloride
• Creatinine*
• Total CO₂
• Glucose
• Lactate
• Potassium
• Sodium

4 – Description of the control samples

Liquid control solutions in ampoules (ready-to-use samples).