The St. Jude Department of Pathology has received accreditation to the ISO15189 standard under the College of American Pathologists (CAP) 15189SM Accreditation Program. St. Jude is the first children’s hospital in the nation to be accredited under this program.
The accreditation is based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 15189 Standard for laboratories’ technical competence, management, and continual improvement. It focuses on improved patient safety and risk reduction, outlining standards for quality, and competence particular to medical laboratories.
CAP 15189SM is a voluntary, nonregulatory accreditation to the ISO 15189:2012 Standard as published by ISO. The program does not replace the CAP’s Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-based Laboratory Accreditation Program, but complements CAP accreditation and other quality systems. The program optimizes processes to improve patient care, strengthens quality standards while reducing institutional errors and risks, and controls costs. ■
