Power of Peer Inspections
Our Accreditation Programs are built on a unique, reciprocal, peer-based inspection model that benefits both the laboratories being inspected and the laboratory providing the inspection team. Our pathologist/director-led inspection teams:
- Include trained, practicing laboratory professionals who understand the workflows and challenges you face because they face them every day as well.
- Have the opportunity to observe and learn from a variety of laboratory environments while exchanging best practices to ensure high quality patient safety and care.
The expertise of our inspection teams is matched to the size and scope of your laboratory services.
There’s a real educational benefit when the [inspection] team is from a comparable institution and they have relevant experience. Being able to bounce ideas off of them and understand how they deal with certain issues is invaluable.
– Laboratory Medical Director, Academic Medical Center
Specialty Inspectors Provide Valuable Insight
Only the CAP makes use of specialty inspectors for highly complex specialties. These inspectors understand the issues and technology for their specialty and can provide valuable insight and practical advice to the laboratory being inspected. Specialty inspectors are used for:
- Molecular pathology
- Clinical biochemical genetics
- Cytogenetics
- Histocompatibility
- Flow cytometry
The inspection team from our last peer inspection was excellent. They not only knew molecular diagnostics forwards and backwards, they worked closely with us to ensure that our laboratory was meeting all the requirements.
– Laboratory Medical Director, Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory
In-Depth Inspections Across All Areas
While other accreditors may offer only a high-level overview of your laboratory’s performance or operations, only inspecting where their process happens to take them, CAP inspections thoroughly examine every discipline within your laboratory. Drawing from their own work experience and CAP checklists to guide them, our trained inspectors provide a more efficient, comprehensive, and educational inspection. They drill deep, using our R.O.A.D. (Read, Observe, Ask, Discover) inspection methodology.
- Read: Inspectors review a sampling of laboratory documents. This information helps guide the “Observe” and “Ask” techniques.
- Observe: Inspectors examine laboratory activity and compare it to documented policies and procedures. Deviation from documented policies and procedures are noted.
- Ask: Inspectors ask open-ended, probing questions. This helps corroborate findings uncovered using the “Read” and “Observe” techniques.
- Discover: Inspectors drill down using a variety of techniques such as following samples through the process (also known as the tracer technique). This aids in the understanding of pre-analytic, analytic, and post-analytic processes while reviewing multiple requirements simultaneously.