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CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – When it comes to tests, the lab is used to conducting a wide array of specimen assessments. The Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune Laboratory Department completed 1.1 million tests in 2015. To many, it comes as no surprise that the laboratory team passed the College of American Pathologist accreditation inspection with a 99.4 percent. The accreditation process, which covers over 1600 compliance standards, stringently ensures that our naval hospital is among the top rated laboratories in Navy Medicine.
The CAP accreditation, which was initiated 65 years ago and is responsible for accrediting 7,700 laboratories and providing proficiency testing to 20,000 laboratories worldwide, is a requirement of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery for all of Navy Medicine, according to their Website.
The CAP accreditation process, assessing the laboratory's overall management and operation, recently underwent some updates in July 2015.
“In the 2015 accreditation checklist edition, the CAP added new requirements, including significant changes addressing laboratory developed tests, establishing a minimum number of samples to ensure analytic accuracy,” according to a CAP press release. “Other additions include updated checklist items for cancer reporting and in vivo microscopy, in anatomic pathology, as well as enhanced quality control measures and further guidelines on confirming and reporting personnel qualifications”
It is these changes that the assistant laboratory department head, NHCL, Lt.j.g. Ashley Russell attributes the ten compliance elements that were found not to be satisfactory. The hospital, which was the first in Navy Medicine East to undergo the accreditation process with the new requirements has scored highest of all the navy medical treatment facilities evaluated to date, he said.
Inspectors looked through the work of 74 laboratory professionals, seven branch clinics and 14 point-of-care sites throughout the hospital. Testing a wide range of specimens, the laboratory conducted 1.1 million clinical tests in 2015, from routine urinalysis to complicated immunological testing used to track disease conditions.
“They looked at the whole process, from the people at the front desk who receive the patients and their specimens to the laboratory technicians completing the patient’s results so they are accessible by the health care provider,” said Russell. “(The score) was not the result of any one person’s actions.”
While Russell credits the entire team for the quality work and patient centered care that patients have come to expect from the laboratory, he does tribute one person for holding the department accountable.
“The quality assurance manager, Jan Schmidt, ensures daily that we meet the standards of care,” said Russell. “She oversees everything laboratory related that takes place throughout the hospital.
Russell went on to say, “it is this team effort that allows the laboratory to be a patient-centered, high caliber laboratory that serves the medical center of choice.”
| Date Taken: | 02.05.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 02.05.2016 16:03 |
| Story ID: | 188056 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 26 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Lab passes with flying colors, by SSgt Danielle Bolton, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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