CAP Accreditation Checklist
  Redesigned for June 2010 Edition

Posted May 4, 2010

We have enhanced the Accreditation Checklist content and updated the design to create a user-friendly, consistent tool to provide guidance for interpretation of checklist requirements and lead to a higher quality inspection. The new checklist changes are more than just a new look and feel...they will drive an improved approach to how laboratories and inspectors plan for and carry out inspections.

Three key changes that will help laboratories more efficiently and effectively meet their accreditation requirements are:

• Evidence of Compliance—This information highlights specific examples of documentation needed to assess that the laboratory is in compliance with the requirement.
• Subject Headers—This word or group of words appears on the same line as the requirement number and provides a summary or key to the content of the requirement.
• Declarative Statements—We have changed checklist questions to declarative statements to better convey the regulatory nature of requirements.

A New Inspection Road Map

The CAP has streamlined the inspection approach used during on-site inspections. Rather than reviewing each individual requirement, CAP inspectors are encouraged to focus on groups of related questions. Once an area of concern has been identified, inspectors are encouraged to “drill down” to more specific requirements and review more details outlined in the prescriptive Evidence of Compliance statements.

This new approach, referred to as ROAD, is made up of four processes:

• Read/review documents that must be looked at during the inspection.
• Observe laboratory practices by looking at what the laboratory personnel are actually doing and note if practice deviates from the documented policies/procedures.
• Ask open-ended, probing questions that start with phrases such as “show me how...,” or “tell me about...,” or “what would you do?”
• Discover/follow a specimen from collection to reporting to cover multiple checklist requirements simultaneously.

Questions? Contact us at 800-323-4040 option 1, then 4 or 1-847-832-7000 or email us.