The Top 10 Reasons For A Delayed ICAVL Application
from
the February 2007 issue
Each
quarter, 30-40% of ICAVL applicant laboratories receives a delay
status for one or more applications submitted for accreditation
or reaccreditation. Delay of the laboratory's application requires
that additional material be sent to further demonstrate adherence
to the ICAVL Standards and/or provide the adequate documentation
necessary for a complete application review. Though these problems
can often be easily corrected and a potential lapse in the laboratory's
accreditation prevented, the disappointment and additional demands
placed upon laboratory staff due to a delayed accreditation
might be avoided by identifying the potential problems prior
to the application submission.
The
following is a list of the ten most frequent reasons an accreditation
decision is delayed, as well as several ways to help prevent
a delay in your laboratory's accreditation.
10.) Insufficient or inappropriate CME.
- 15
hours of relevant CME is required every three years (for medical
staff, 10 of the 15 must be AMA Category I).
- To
be relevant, the course content must address the principles,
instrumentation, techniques or interpretation of noninvasive
vascular testing performed in the laboratory.
9.) Vague, incomplete technical protocols.
- Protocol
should include step-by-step procedure.
- Protocol
should reflect current lab practices.
- Protocol
should include the minimum components required by the ICAVL
Standards (Standards 3.1 and 3.2 in all testing areas).
8.) Incomplete final reports.
- Include
the components required by the ICAVL Standards (Section
4 of the Organization Standards).
- Indication
for examination
- Body
of findings and separate summary
- Signature
block
- Signature/completion
date
7.) Low overall QA accuracy.
- Correlation
accuracy must be >70%; if not, be proactive and assess
for problems, then write a plan for improvement and reassessment.
- Be
certain that the QA matrix is correctly completed and that
the calculation of statistics is accurate.
6.) Insufficient number of quality assurance correlations.
- There
are specific requirements for each testing section and are
included in Section 6 of each set of testing standards.
- A
minimum of 30 internal carotid artery, 30 limb (venous and
arterial), 15 intracranial cases and 15 visceral cases correlated
to other radiographic procedures or surgical pathology are
required over the three-year accreditation period.
- If
it is impossible to meet the minimum requirement, be proactive
by enhancing the QA program by including alternative methods
such as peer review.
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