Laboratory instrument manufacturers set environmental requirements, such as temperature and humidity, to ensure their instruments perform properly. Monitoring of these…
Clinical Labs
Meeting Requirements for Lab Specimen Collection, Handling
Ensuring a specimen is adequate and appropriate for laboratory testing is a team effort that involves the patient, the individual collecting…
Labs Target Deficiencies to Elevate Compliance
Clinical laboratories accredited by ACHC are making measurable improvement in performance quality and safety. Data from the new Quality Review edition…
Accreditation Theater: The Illusion of Rigor in Healthcare Accreditation
In the post-9/11 era, the term “Security Theater” emerged to describe over-the-top yet ineffective airport security procedures designed more to make travelers feel safe than to actually increase safety. Today, healthcare accreditation faces its own version…
Maintenance Protocols Drive Testing Accuracy
Testing quality and equipment accuracy go hand in hand in ACHC-accredited laboratories. Maintenance protocols are essential to reliable…
Ensuring Proper Storage and Temperatures for the Blood Bank
Your laboratory blood bank must have a defined system for storing blood and blood products, and adequate refrigerated space for…
Ensuring Personnel Competency at All Levels
Evaluation of competency is expected for all laboratory testing personnel. This occurs at least twice in the first year that…
Implementation Deadline Approaching for Adapting to Proficiency Testing Regulations
Clinical laboratories produce test results that are crucial to providers’ decision-making in ensuring patients receive consistently high-quality care. How do laboratories ensure providers receive consistently accurate test results? Laboratories conduct proficiency testing to meet CMS quality assurance rules, including rules now being updated.
Heads Up, Laboratories! Dengue Virus, Novel Influenza, and More
On June 25, 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Health Alert Network (HAN) message about an increased risk of dengue virus (DENV) infections in the United States in 2024.
U.S. Agencies Monitoring Avian Influenza While Measles and Mpox Demand Attention, Too
First, birds, of course. Then cows contracted A/H5 avian influenza. And now with a human case confirmed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is taking steps to help manufacturers prepare to mass produce devices for testing. And in the U.S. and elsewhere, measles and Mpox require watching, too.