Horrible Luck: GEM 7000 Rounding Results for SO-B 2026

I just got my SO-B Blood Oximetry PT peer results back... I have the worst luck.

For our GEM 7000, hemoglobin is directly measured and hematocrit is calculated based on the hemoglobin result which is 3X the hemoglobin.

For SO-07 total hemoglobin results I got 7.1 g/dL.
The hematocrit result (21%) was copied directly from the GEM 7000 printout.
The lower acceptance limit is 21.01%.

Based on a manual calculation, the actual hematocrit value would be 7.1 x 3 = 21.3%.
A hematocrit result of 21.3% would have been within the acceptable range.


The reported value appears lower because the GEM 7000 rounds results to whole numbers.
The instrument settings do not allow decimal places to be displayed for hematocrit results.

I called CAP to figure out what to do in the future and they informed me that I have to input the result that is printed out from the analyzer.

I think this is rediculous. If all the peer group is using the GEM 7000 and you can't change the decimal places, the lower and upper range of 21.01 -22.77 should actually be 21 -23 to account for the rounding.

Due to the rounding, the reality of the range is actually tighter.
For example, for the lower range of 21.01, you can only really get a calculation of 21.5 or more. If you get 21.4, The GEM will round you down so you are out because the lower limit is 21.01

Am I being unreasonable? that range is incredibly narrow.

I thought the total allowable error is 4% absolute for hematocrit.
Shouldn't they just do plus/minus 4 off of the average to define lower and upper limits?   
 
Did anyone else fail due to rounding from the GEM?