Prevention of Medical Errors 2019

Course overview

While the College of American Pathologists does not specifically endorse the use of the ISO 15189 standard for quality management of medical laboratories (Schneider, Maurer, and Friedberg, 2017), the organization has published material comparing the current US accreditation program to the international standards. In the course author’s professional opinion, multiple components of the ISO 15189 standard could be utilized to further decrease medical errors within the laboratory. The standards are written to allow every laboratory professional, from bench level to administrative, the ability to be proactive and take a slightly different approach to preventing medical errors in multiple stages of the total testing process. Currently, the ISO 15189 standard does not meet CLIA requirements and is unable to replace CLIA-based accreditation. However, this material does currently meet many of the technical requirements established by CLIA. Due to this factor, an increasing number of laboratories in the United States are now implementing the international standards as part of their individual quality management programs. This course provides this comparison. Reference: Schneider, Maurer, and Friedberg (2017). International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 15189. Annals of Laboratory Medicine, 37(5). 365-370. DOI: 10.3343/alm.2017.37.5.365