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The Benefits of a Public/Private Partnership on Laboratory Accreditation
Oral Presentation
Prepared by C. Gunning
American Association for Laboratory Accreditation, 5301 Buckeystown Pike Suite 350, Frekerick, MD, 21704
Contact Information: cgunning@A2LA.org; 240-575-7481
ABSTRACT
In order to protect public health and the environment, regulators need data of known and documented quality. The public needs to have confidence in the data regulators are relying on. The future of the commercial laboratory industry depends on the public having confidence in the data being generated. A level playing field requires that all laboratories adhere to recognized quality standards.
In this age of increasing national debt and shrinking state budgets, there is a large amount of pressure on state accrediting bodies to maintain a high level of service and ensure data quality emerging from their accrediting labs with less and less resources at their disposal. One proposed solution to this problem is to work towards public and private partnerships that would shift some of the burden of performing the assessments and managing the day to day accreditation programs to mutually recognized third party accrediting bodies. The state programs could then focus on supervising the program and shifting resources towards method development and implementation. This partnership would allow the state programs to retain primacy in the issuance of licenses based on the third part accreditation thereby continuing to follow state regulations.
There are many examples of successful public and private partnerships that have been mutually beneficial. These include federal programs such as the EPA asbestos and lead programs, and state programs such as Georgia, Kentucky, Wyoming, and Washington. The partnerships have been successful due to the fact that they have been tailored to specific regulatory needs but are generally based on consensus standards ISO/IEC 17011 and ISO/IEC 17025. The programs require minimal agency resources while still being flexible enough to handle varying service demands.
In summary, the main goal of the accreditation process is to ensure (attest) that labs can competently demonstrate their abilities to perform their scope of accreditation in relation to the standard and accreditation requirements. This goal can be successfully realized in a growing market with limited resources by utilizing a successful public/private partnership model.
Oral Presentation
Prepared by C. Gunning
American Association for Laboratory Accreditation, 5301 Buckeystown Pike Suite 350, Frekerick, MD, 21704
Contact Information: cgunning@A2LA.org; 240-575-7481
ABSTRACT
In order to protect public health and the environment, regulators need data of known and documented quality. The public needs to have confidence in the data regulators are relying on. The future of the commercial laboratory industry depends on the public having confidence in the data being generated. A level playing field requires that all laboratories adhere to recognized quality standards.
In this age of increasing national debt and shrinking state budgets, there is a large amount of pressure on state accrediting bodies to maintain a high level of service and ensure data quality emerging from their accrediting labs with less and less resources at their disposal. One proposed solution to this problem is to work towards public and private partnerships that would shift some of the burden of performing the assessments and managing the day to day accreditation programs to mutually recognized third party accrediting bodies. The state programs could then focus on supervising the program and shifting resources towards method development and implementation. This partnership would allow the state programs to retain primacy in the issuance of licenses based on the third part accreditation thereby continuing to follow state regulations.
There are many examples of successful public and private partnerships that have been mutually beneficial. These include federal programs such as the EPA asbestos and lead programs, and state programs such as Georgia, Kentucky, Wyoming, and Washington. The partnerships have been successful due to the fact that they have been tailored to specific regulatory needs but are generally based on consensus standards ISO/IEC 17011 and ISO/IEC 17025. The programs require minimal agency resources while still being flexible enough to handle varying service demands.
In summary, the main goal of the accreditation process is to ensure (attest) that labs can competently demonstrate their abilities to perform their scope of accreditation in relation to the standard and accreditation requirements. This goal can be successfully realized in a growing market with limited resources by utilizing a successful public/private partnership model.