Scheduled maintenance

Laboratory Quality Journey

09/28/2026
Podcast

September 28, 2026

Laboratory Accreditation Program – CAP

Proficiency Testing – CAP

Nancy Johnson

Welcome

to

CAP

News.

I'm

Nancy

Johnson

with

the

College

of

American

Pathologists.

Here's

what's

making

news

in

pathology

and

laboratory

medicine.

When

most

of

us

get

a

blood

test

or

biopsy,

we

don't

think

much

about

what

happens

next.

The

sample

goes

out

the

door.

A

few

hours

or

days

later,

the

results

show

up

in

our

chart.

But

behind

every

test

result

is

an

entire

system

designed

to

answer

one

critical

question.

Can

patients

trust

the

results?

For

CHRISTUS Health

in

Northeast

Texas,

ensuring

consistent,

reliable

lab

results

across

multiple

locations

presented

them

with

a

challenge.

Patusa Mayfield

I

don't

want

to

be

selfish,

but

navigating

three

or

four

accrediting

agencies

is

a

lot

of

work.

And

I

wanted

to

standardize

not

only

the

main

hospital

but

all

the

smaller

hospitals,

the

35

plus

clinics

that

we

have

that

are

Christas

Trini

clinics,

all

under

one

accrediting

agency.

Nancy Johnson

Patusa

Mayfield

is

the

laboratory

director

for

CHRISTUS

Mother

Frances.

The

health

system

performs

roughly

four

and

a

half

million

lab

tests

every

year.

A

key

decision

they

made

for

consistent

quality

is

accreditation

by

the

College

of

American

Pathologists.

Patusa Mayfield

CAP

provides

standardization,

they

provide

standards

that

make

you

be

better.

At

first,

you

know,

when

you

read

all

these

standards,

you

think,

oh,

how

can

we

meet

this?

But

there's

always

such

a

synopsis

or

a

story

behind

the

standard

that

says,

you

know,

different

ways

of

looking

at

the

requirements.

Even

if

you

don't

understand

the

standard,

CAP

provides

a

tremendous

resource.

They

have

education,

they

have

an

accreditation

section

that

devotes

themselves

just

to

explaining

the

standards

and

making

you

understand

it.

Nancy Johnson

For

patients,

those

standards

are

largely

invisible.

Most

never

see

the

safeguards

built

into

every

step

of

testing.

Dr.

Kelli

Chase

is

a

pathologist

and

laboratory

medical

director

for

CHRISTUS

Mother

Frances.

Dr. Kelli Chase

A

lot

of

patients

don't

have

much

knowledge

about

the

hospital

laboratory

or

the

laboratory

where

their

blood

or

their

biopsy

specimens

go,

and

uh

because

uh

we're

not

interacting

directly

with

them.

And

so

it's

it's

interesting,

I

think,

for

maybe

them

to

know

that

the

lab

is

not

just

a

great

big

black

box

that

does

magic.

Nancy Johnson

Behind

the

scenes

are

multiple

quality

checks.

A

key

component

of

the

quality

journey

for

CHRISTUS

Health

involved

choosing

a

proficiency

testing

provider.

Dr. Kelli Chase

Of

course,

College

of

American

Pathologists

has

a

long

history

with

quality

measures,

proficiency

testing,

working

with

pathologists

at

multiple

laboratories

in

different

environments,

as

well,

uh

including

uh

hospital

environments

and

outpatient

laboratories,

large

and

small,

uh,

and

far

and

wide.

Nancy Johnson

And

CHRISTUS

isn't

standing

still.

The

health

system

is

adding

beds,

opening

new

facilities,

and

expanding

services

across

Northeast

Texas.

For

Mayfield,

that's

exactly

why

building

a

unified

quality

framework

matters

now

more

than

ever.

Patusa Mayfield

So

we're

a

large

institution,

and

like

I

said,

654

beds,

but

adding

an

additional

150

is

going

to

bring

our

complexity

even

higher.

So

we

want

to

make

sure

that

we're

ready

for

that

growth

and

that

strategy

that's

coming

forward.

Nancy Johnson

Starting

next

year,

all

48

sites

in

the

CHRISTUS

Texas

region

will

be

CAP

accredited

and

will

use

CAP

proficiency

testing.

They're

on

a

journey

to

bring

their

entire

health

system

under

the

CAP

for

quality.

That

does

it

for

the

Daily

Edition.

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if

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hit

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like

button

and

leave

us

a

comment.

And

if

you've

got

a

story

we

should

be

covering,

write

to

us

at

stories

at

CAP.org.

We're

back

tomorrow

at

5

a.m.

Eastern

for

another

episode

of

our

newscast.

I'm

Nancy

Johnson.

Have

a

great

day.