GAO report criticizes laboratory quality oversight
Accreditation Connection, July 3, 2006
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in June released a 99-page report that suggested accreditation and state laboratory surveys don't provide "a realistic picture of lab quality."
The report, Clinical Lab Quality: CMS and Survey Organization Oversight Should be Strengthened, outlines suggested changes to laboratory surveys and CMS' oversight of lab quality.
One recommendation focused on standardizing how surveyors from agencies such as the JCAHO report deficiencies. The report indicated it is difficult to compare results from the surveying entities and therefore gain significant information about laboratory quality. The report also suggested that surveying entities should place more emphasis on "their regulatory role" and enforcement rather than educational efforts. And it also emphasized the importance of encouraging staff to make complaints about lab quality without fear of retaliation.
CMS, JCAHO, and other lab accreditors all issued responses to a draft of the report disagreeing with some of the GAO's recommendations. Those responses are included as appendices to the final report.
Click here for a transcript of JCAHO President Dennis O'Leary's testimony.
Look for a more detailed analysis of the report, the GAO's, JCAHO's and CMS's responses to the report in the September issue of Laboratory Compliance Insider, published by HCPro.
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