AccreditAtion: delivering confidence in medicAl lAborAtory services


By: Jon Murthy, Marketing Manager, United Kingdom Accreditation Service, Feltham, UK


F 032 MEDLAB MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 2012


or everyone involved in the provision of medical laboratory services, the accuracy, reliability and safety of those services must be the primary concerns. Accreditation is a significant enabler of quality, thereby delivering confidence


to healthcare commissioners, clinicians, the medical laboratories and the patients themselves.


ACCREDITATION OF PATHOLOGY SERVICES TO ISO 15189 ISO 15189 is a globally recognised standard that has been specifically created for medical laboratories to help them develop their quality management systems and assess their competence. The standard is concerned with improving patient safety, risk mitigation and operational efficiency within medical laboratories, where they directly impact upon the continuum of care. To help it achieve this, ISO 15189 specifies quality criteria relating to both technical and managerial competence.


Overall technical competence determined by a wide range of


clinical factors, and is not just restricted to an assessment of the technical competence of staff. It also includes an examination of the testing environment, handling and sampling systems, as well as the validity and appropriateness of test methods. Similarly management competence encompasses the qualifying of external services and suppliers and the management of patient feedback, in addition to internal audits of quality management systems and methods of controlling documents and records.


WHY ACCREDITATION? Although accreditation is voluntary, the majority of UK medical laboratories have chosen CPA (UKAS) accreditation to demonstrate that they have been assessed against the industry accepted standards. The same viewpoint is shared by Dr Mashl D.Al-Nawab, MBChB, DipRCPath, FRCPath, PhD, who is Head of Services at Clinical


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