Performance Assessment of Centrifugation-Based Hematocrit Testing in Primary Care Units: Evidence from Seventy-Two Proficiency Testing Datasets over Eight Years

Background

Centrifugation-based hematocrit (Hct) testing remains widely used in decentralized primary care settings where access to automated hematology analyzers may be limited. Appropriate proficiency testing (PT) performance assessment therefore requires consideration of the analytical variability associated with this measurement method. This study evaluated longitudinal PT data to characterize method-specific variability and compare alternative approaches to RSD estimation for centrifugation-based Hct testing.