EQAS General Terms and Conditions
Labquality EQAS - External Quality Assessment Service Agreement Terms and Conditions
These terms and conditions apply to Aurevia Oy’s Labquality EQAS external quality assessment services (“service”) subscribed by client (“client”).
Service description
Aurevia’s Labquality EQAS external quality assessment schemes are designed for medical laboratories and point-of-care testing sites to monitor and improve their performance. Aurevia provides objective and independent assessments, which support your existing quality system. Part of the EQA production is outsourced to expert laboratories and national partners.
- For each calendar year, Aurevia publishes a Labquality EQAS service program and a delivery schedule.
- The client subscribes to the services it has selected for one calendar year at a time.
- Aurevia delivers samples (along with their processing instructions) included in the service according to its delivery schedule and the client's annual order.
- The client processes, measures, and/or evaluates the samples according to the provided instructions.
- The client reports its own findings by the return date indicated in the instructions.
- Aurevia processes the results and creates reports.
- Reports will be published online.
- The client reviews the report and the findings.
At the end of the calendar year, Aurevia will provide a certificate of participation for the client based on the services rendered to the client.
Annual program and delivery schedule
For each calendar year, Aurevia releases a Labquality EQAS quality assessment service program ("product catalogue"). The documents are released in the autumn of the preceding year. If the service catalogue has changed from the previous year's catalogue, a list of changes will be released along with the catalogue. The overall service delivery schedule will be included in the product catalogue, whereas a more detailed delivery list with delivery dates will be available in Aurevias's EQA portal ("LabScala") and on Aurevia's website for Labquality EQAS services. Aurevia reserves the right to make changes to the annual program and delivery schedule throughout the calendar year.
EQA accounts and updating contact details
Aurevia creates a LabScala EQA main user account for each of its clients and delivers its username, password, and the portal’s user instructions to the client. The client is responsible for adding its contact details to the portal and keeping them up to date. The most important contact details are the main user’s e-mail address, sample delivery address, invoice address, and the client’s contact persons. The client must make sure that the information they provide is up-to-date and correct and, if necessary, is obliged to contact their other service providers to ensure the correct information.
Any changes to the contact details should be reported immediately to Aurevia either through LabScala or by contacting Aurevia’s customer services. Aurevia will deliver its samples, reports, invoices, and notifications to the addresses specified by the client.
Service ordering
Orders are valid for one calendar year, and the client should sign up for the service by the end of November of the preceding year. The client may also subscribe to the service mid-year, but in such cases, the client may not participate in all EQA rounds.
Service orders can be made either by submitting an electronic order in LabScala or contacting Aurevia's customer services in writing. A customer can request an order confirmation during the ordering process in LabScala. Aurevia will always provide an order confirmation if the order has been registered on behalf of the customer.
Service fee
The service fee includes both the external quality assessment service and sample delivery by mail. Additional services (e.g. certificate of participation, report printouts and document delivery by mail) will be ordered and charged separately. The service fee will be calculated based on the valid price list for the current calendar year. Each calendar year's price list will be published in the September of the preceding year. The current price list will be mailed (and, upon the client's request, e-mailed) to all clients as part of the ordering material package.
Effective date and agreement period
The agreement will take effect from the date Aurevia confirms the order submitted by the client either electronically or in writing. The agreement will remain in force until the end of the calendar year specified in the service order, or until the last sample included in the service has been delivered.
Sample delivery
Aurevia will deliver samples (physical samples) or publish digital samples (digital images, virtual microscopy images, videos, and questionnaires) for each round included in the client's order. The samples will be delivered according to the delivery schedule, primarily by mail (letters and/or parcels). A notification email and/or letter will be sent to the participants of digital schemes. When required, samples will be delivered by courier service. Once samples have been sent or published, a notification will be sent to the e-mail addresses indicated by the client.
Aurevia will deliver the samples to the address specified by the client. Aurevia will not accept any liability for damages or delays attributable to the mail service or the client’s internal mail service. However, where possible, Aurevia will strive to provide a replacement for samples damaged during delivery, provided that it still holds samples in its storage and the relevant round has not yet been completed. Replacements will also be made available for samples lost or destroyed by
the client. For replacement samples, Aurevia will charge the client 60 per cent of the full-service fee.
The client may also request samples afterwards for confirming nonconformance resolution or for evaluating a new method. Samples from completed rounds can be delivered, provided that Aurevia still holds any in its storage. For samples from completed rounds, Aurevia will charge the full round fee and a delivery fee.
Sample processing and measurement
The client will be responsible for receiving and storing samples according to the instructions provided. The client will process, measure, and/or evaluate the delivered or published samples according to instructions. The sample analysis period varies from round to round, ranging from one week to four weeks on average. In some rounds, the analysis period can be as long as eight weeks.
Reporting results
The client must report the relevant results to Aurevia by the deadline indicated in the provided instructions. All results should be reported via Aurevia's EQA portal using LabScala’s electronic forms unless another reporting method has been specified (or agreed upon). Aurevia will have no obligation to process any results delivered after the reporting deadline. No compensation will be paid for rounds the client has missed. In some rounds, incomplete results are considered an error, resulting in a score of zero.
In some rounds, the client may report several results for one sample. A separate client number (account) might be needed for creating reports for such rounds. Instructions for reporting several results for one sample are available from Aurevia's customer services. Several results for one sample can be reported only by using electronic result forms.
Results processing
Once the result delivery deadline is reached, Aurevia will process the results impartially. In most rounds, once the results have been processed, a preliminary overview of results or a preliminary report will be posted in LabScala. On average, processing the results takes 2–5 days, but in some special rounds, it can take several weeks. Once the results have been completed, the
round’s data will be handed over to a survey expert for further analysis and comments. On average, the final report will be published along with the survey expert’s comments 2–3 weeks after the round is completed.
Report delivery
Reports will be published in Aurevia’s EQA portal LabScala. Once a report is complete, a notific ation will be sent to the e-mail addresses indicated by the client.
Client’s report review
The client must review the report and notify Aurevia of any errors in the registered results or the result analysis no later than the response date indicated in the report. The minimum complaint period is three weeks from the date the report was posted online.
Certificate of participation
As an option, the client can include a certificate of participation (in English) in its order. The certificate will be delivered at the end of the year. If the client wishes to use an alternative (English) name in the certificate, it can do so by entering the name in LabScala. If required, a preliminary certificate can also be provided. Preliminary certificates are available from Aurevia's
customer services.
Record-keeping of reports
Aurevia will keep the client’s quality assessment reports for at least 10 years. The client can access its reports through Aurevia’s EQA portal LabScala.
Services of other service provider
Aurevia provides external quality assessment services of other organizations in its Labquality EQAS service line. These services must be ordered by the end of the previous calendar year and cannot be attended in the middle of the year. The organization providing the service will send the samples directly to the participants in most of the cases. The results are reported to the service provider's system according to their instructions. The report is delivered to customers from the
service provider's own system. Aurevia does not issue certificates of participation for services of other service providers.
Confidentiality
Aurevia handles all client information in complete confidentiality. Aurevia will not release any information concerning its clients’ participation or performance in quality assessment rounds to third parties without the client’s consent.
Contract modifications
Aurevia reserves the right to develop or change the content of its external quality assessment services on operational grounds. Aurevia will make any reasonable effort to notify the client of any such change no later than one month prior to the relevant service’s planned time of delivery. The client has the right to cancel rounds or terminate the agreement in the course of the calendar year. However, the relevant round must be cancelled no later than one month from the planned month of delivery. Once the round has been cancelled, Aurevia will charge the client only for the rounds which do not meet the above requirements.
Invoicing and payment terms
Aurevia will invoice the client for the services ex-ante (after it has delivered the relevant samples) 2–12 times per year. Each invoice will include all services (rounds) whose planned sample delivery date precedes the last date of the billing month. Payment terms are 14 days net. Delayed payments will be subject to interest on arrears pursuant to the Finnish Interest Act
(Finlex: 633/1982; as amended) as well as any costs arising from reminders and debt collection. Aurevia reserves the right to suspend its contractual obligations in case there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the client is likely to fail to fulfil its contractual obligations.
Force majeure
Aurevia will not accept any liability for delays or failure to fulfil its obligations due to circumstances beyond its control. Force majeure events not attributable to Aurevia include strikes or other forms of industrial action, the EQA manager or survey expert becoming ill, power or telecommunications outages, disruptions in information systems, public law measures or any
other circumstances beyond Aurevia’s reasonable control.
Aurevia 02 January 2025
