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Document No. GenQA-S-14 Version No. Issue Date

2 06/03/2019

Author: Bettina Quellhorst-Pawley of 15

<< Sample EQA User Guide>>

Purpose and Scope This EQA User Guide covers all aspects of EQA access, navigation and result submissions for GenQA Sample Distribution EQAs. Please note: These instructions were compiled using Google Chrome, the optimal browser for the Online EQA Interface. Functionality may vary with other browsers (Firefox and Internet Explorer9+).


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Contents

Contents .......................................................................................................................... 2 1. Accessing the EQA ................................................................................................ 3 2. Navigating the EQA ................................................................................................ 6 3. Reporting/Result Submission ............................................................................... 7 4. Retrieving EQA results .......................................................................................... 9 5. Submitting an Appeal .......................................................................................... 10 6. EQA Performance Issue – Incident Form ........................................................... 13 Appendix : ................................................................................................................... 15


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1. Accessing the EQA Go to login page of GenQA website (http://www.genqa.org), select ‘Login’ and enter your login details

When you are in the main menu please select either ‘Beta Site’ to access the new interface or ‘Schemes’ to continue with the current interface.

http://www.genqa.org/


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If you selected ‘Beta Site’ you will get the Diary Overview. Any EQA that has a ‘live’ activity will show up as either AMBER - if the activity is open or RED if the activity is about to close. GREEN denotes that there is no current activity for this EQA. To navigate to the EQA you wish to work on scroll down the page and click on the name.

If you selected ’Schemes’ you can either find the EQA you wish to work on by scrollling through the list and clicking on ‘Details’ (1) next to the EQA in question or enter the name of the EQA in the Search box (2) and click ‘Search’ (3). Please note: If your laboratory is enrolled in a large number of EQAs, these may not all appear on one page. To access the EQA you may have to navigate between pages (4).


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Click on the ‘Details’ link next to the EQA scheme you wish to access

(3)

(2))

(1)

(4)


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2. Navigating the EQA

To access the supporting documentation such as

• EQA instructions,

• Ticklists,

• Referral cards,

• Additional information

• Pevious year’s summary reports scroll down the page and click on the relevant links to the documents.


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3. Reporting/Result Submission Click on ‘EQA results submission’ link to access the interface that allows you to upload your reports. The system will only accept pdf documents. Instructions on exact requirements and how to generate PDF documents are given in sections 3 and 4 of this User Guide.

The following pop up box appears which allows you to upload your results in a pdf format. Please note: If you are not submitting in the English language then please select the language you are submitting in from the drop down menu (1). Submission languages vary and are also given in the EQA instructions. You can either ‘Drag and Drop’ your file into the respective window (2) or upload your file the conventional way by clicking on the ‘Upload’ button (3) and selecting the document from your computer.

(1)

(2)

(3)


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Only the primary laboratory contact or nominated user has the system authorisation to submit the results on the website. The Scheme Office can enable other laboratory contacts to submit results – this will only be done on request from the primary contact. Once your report has been uploaded you will see the document icon and name on the screen. You can review the uploaded document to check that the report and format is correct (PDF) by clicking on the document name. A green square will appear next to the case successfully submitted.

Once you have submitted all your results, and closed the online EQA window, a green tick will appear against the EQA case on the scheme details page indicating that you have completed the case. Please note that you may have to refresh the webpage.


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4. Retrieving EQA results

Participants are notified by email once the preliminary EQA results are available on the website. To access the results log into the website, select ‘Schemes’, and open the relevant EQA. To download the Individual Laboratory Report (ILR) containing your laboratory’s EQA results click on ‘View Documents’ (1). The Scheme Office also publishes a Summary Report giving more general information about the EQA, the results submitted, Scores tables for benchmarking and other relevant information. To access this report click on the report link (2).

On the next page click on ‘LabScoresReport’ to access your report

(1)

(2)


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5. Submitting an Appeal

Once the preliminary EQA results have been published, participants have a specified period during which they can appeal their EQA results. The end date of appeals is given on the Scheme Reports page. If you want to launch an appeal click on ‘Appeals’ (1).

This will give you access to an online appeals form. Enter the relevant case and category as well as your reason for appealing. Once you have entered all the necessary information click ‘Submit’ to save your appeal and leave the page. Please note: You can edit your appeal throughout the appeals period.


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The system will confirm that your appeal has been saved successfully. You can now close the window by clicking on the cross in the top right corner of the screen. Once the appeals period is closed, all appeals will be submitted to the relevant Specialist Advisory Group (SAG) for consideration. The SAG decision (appeal accepted, partially accepted or rejected) together with an explanation from the Scheme Office will be added to the appeals form and, where applicable, changes will be made to the ILR and the Scheme Report. Participants will be notified by email once the final results post appeals are available on the website. To retrieve your final results and appeals response, go to the Scheme Documents page and select ‘View Documents’.


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On the next page you will have access to your final ILR as well as your Appeals Response Report which will give details of your appeal as well as the SAG response. Like your ILR, this report can be downloaded and printed.


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6. EQA Performance Issue – Incident Form

If you have received a Poor Performance designation you will be asked to complete a Performance Issue Incident Form. To do this you need to access the EQA in question

and select ‘EQA performance issue – Incident form’. The deadline by which this form

needs to be completed is given on the website.

Complete the online Incident Form.


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Remember to click ‘Save’ when you wish to leave the page or have completed your form. You can make amendments and additions to the form throughout the submission period. To leave the form, click the cross in the top right corner of the screen. All Incident Forms will be considered by the relevant Scheme staff and a response will be added to the form. Participants will be notified once this is available to download from the website. To retrieve the response from the Scheme Office, go to the Scheme Documents page and select ‘View Documents’.


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Appendix :

Submission of results - what is required by the Scheme Laboratories can prepare their reports in the usual way, using whichever word processing software they conventionally use. They are then asked to anonymise their reports (take out any information that could identify their laboratory, such as address, names etc.) and generate standard PDF (ideally PDF/A) by using an appropriate tool. The resulting PDF document should be uploaded as described under 1.3 and 2.2.

How to generate PDF/A Files Many office tools support the direct creation of PDF/A files. Alternatively, a PDF file printer can be installed. Microsoft Office 2007 introduced support for the direct creation of PDF/A files through the Save as PDF option. Open Office introduced support for PDF/A in release 2.4 (in early 2008). There are many PDF printer drivers available for Windows. These are installed on the computer and allow any program (such as MS Word and Excel) to create a PDF via the print facility. Such a driver is available as a part of Adobe Acrobat XI Pro. There are also freely available PDF print drivers which generate PDF/A. One of these is PDF Creator, available from pdfforge (http://www.pdfforge.org/).