It demonstrates a commitment to quality care.
The purpose of the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Nuclear Medicine Laboratories (ICANL) is "to ensure high quality patient care and to promote health care by providing a mechanism to encourage and recognize the provision of quality nuclear cardiology, nuclear medicine and PET diagnostic evaluations by a process of voluntary accreditation." Through the accreditation process, laboratories assess every aspect of daily operation and its impact on the quality of health care provided to patients. While completing the accreditation application, laboratories often identify and correct potential problems, revising protocols and validating quality assurance programs. Because accreditation is renewed every three years, a long-term commitment to quality and self-assessment is developed and maintained. Laboratories may use ICANL accreditation as the foundation to create and achieve realistic quality care goals.
It provides a confidential peer-review.
Designed to serve laboratories as an educational tool, ICANL accreditation is made up of two crucial steps. First, laboratories conduct a detailed self-evaluation using the ICANL Standards and the application. Completion of the application requires detailed information on all aspects of laboratory operation as well as the submission of actual case studies for review. The case studies are crucial in determining the laboratory's compliance with the Standards, and are the basis for judgment of the quality of work that laboratories perform. Once the self-evaluation is completed, the documents and case studies are reviewed by the ICANL Board of Directors. All aspects of the review are confidential.
It's a recruiting tool.
Accredited laboratories can use their accreditation as a recruiting tool to attract the best and brightest physicians and technologists. Talented professionals look for high-quality programs, and accreditation assures potential employees that a laboratory is dedicated to achieving the highest standards for patient care.
It's intersocietal.
The intersocietal approach is the foundation of the accrediting bodies managed under the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission's umbrella. The ICANL is a nonprofit organization established with the support of the sponsoring organizations. Representatives from these sponsoring organizations, including both physicians and technologists, serve on the ICANL Board of Directors. All areas of nuclear medicine, nuclear cardiology and PET were represented during the creation of the Standards for accreditation and all areas continue to steer the accreditation process.
It's proven successful.
Created in 1997, the ICANL has accredited nearly 3,000 nuclear medicine/nuclear cardiology/PET sites to date. Partly responsible for the prevalence of ICANL accreditation, several insurers have adopted payment policies requiring accreditation of nuclear cardiology, nuclear medicine and PET imaging facilities. Most recently, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA), requires all nonhospital providers of advanced diagnostic imaging, inclusive of Nuclear Medicine, MRI, CT and PET, to obtain accreditation as a condition for reimbursement by January 1, 2012. The ICANL, along with the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Vascular Laboratories (ICAVL), the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories (ICAEL), the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Magnetic Resonance Laboratories
(ICAMRL), the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Computed Tomography Laboratories (ICACTL) and the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Carotid Stenting Facilities (ICACSF) are members of the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC).
It demonstrate's accountability
Health care organizations are held to very high levels of accountability, by peers and by the general public. In numerous states, reimbursement directives that require accreditation of the laboratory have been instituted (please visit Payment Policies section for the current list). Similar draft payment policies are pending throughout the United States. Laboratories attaining accreditation before it is required for reimbursement demonstrate a willingness to surpass current expectations. The general public and members of the nuclear medicine, nuclear cardiology and PET communities will recognize an unmatched commitment to providing quality health care by laboratories that achieve ICANL accreditation. |
