In 1992 the Norwegian health authorities and the Norwegian Medical Association made a joint project to secure the quality of laboratory analyses performed in primary care.
Participation is voluntary and there is no fee for participation.
In addition to analytical quality, basal information about the practices is registered and it is therefore possible to relate analytical performance to different aspect of the practices e.g. use of internal controls, type of staff performing the analyses, types of instruments etc. Fresh material is used whenever possible e.g. for haemoglobin and cholesterol, and target values obtained by reference methods can then be used. Quality goals and acceptance limits are based on target intervals together with a percentage tolerated deviation. Ann Kristin Hauge, Department Engineer Tlf. Anne Stavelin, Department Engineer Tlf.