River Park lab passes test
The CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program is designed to go well beyond regulatory compliance and helps laboratories achieve the highest standards of excellence to positively impact patient care.
The program measures adherence to some 1,500 standards which provide a quality practice blueprint for laboratories to follow. An accredited lab is inspected and approved by a private not-for-profit organization approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. At the end of the review, River Park lab services received high marks and full accreditation.
‘CAP holds unannounced surveys every other year,’ said Peggy Hardcastle, River Park’s director of laboratory services. ‘This was our best in several years and it’s due to the hard work and high standards of our lab staff.’
River Park’s Clinical Laboratory performs approximately 180,000 tests annual and a full-time staff of 12 licensed medical technologists and three phlebotomists.
‘We pay thousands of dollars a year to ensure the quality of our lab tests,’ Hardcastle said. ‘Throughout the year, unidentified samples are received from CAP and a correct identification rate of those samples of 90 percent is required to keep our accredited status.’
The goal of the CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program is to improve patient safety by advancing the quality of lab services through education, standard setting and ensuring labs meet or exceed regulatory compliance. Accredited facilities such as River Park become part of an exclusive group of labs worldwide that have met the highest standards of excellence according the CAP.
The accreditation of the River Park Laboratory follows the full accreditation of the entire facility by the Joint Commission in another recent survey.
‘I think this last month has been a good one for our facility. I know the lab staff has worked diligently to prepare for our CAP survey and based on the results of Joint Commission’s review, everyone here is prepared to serve our patients in a high-quality manner,’ said Hardcastle.
For more information on River Park Hospital and its services, please call 815-4000 or visit www.riverpark-hospital.com.