The Joint Commission today announced the launch of Lab Central Connect for accredited laboratories. The portal is designed to help Joint Commission-accredited laboratories centralize storage of important survey-related documents, as well as improve safety and quality by helping to maintain continuous compliance with Joint Commission standards. The portal could also be useful during an organization's Intracycle Monitoring process, which occurs in between on-site accreditation surveys.
"Lab Central Connect will make survey preparation easier and provide an easily accessible and lab-friendly location for key documents," says Jennifer Rhamy, M.B.A., M.A., MT (ASCP) SBB, HP, executive director, Laboratory Accreditation, The Joint Commission. "By providing an efficient, centralized storage system for your information, when your on-site survey occurs, surveyors will be able to quickly access information and spend more time providing organization-specific education during the survey visit."
The Lab Central Connect portal can be accessed through The Joint Commission Connect extranet site. Accredited laboratories are asked to enter a small amount of information such as key personnel, cytology workload and annual statistics as well as whether the lab accepts referral testing and the lab's test systems menu. Accredited laboratories must enter certain information mandated by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) to Lab Central Connect by January 1, 2013. The portal also includes important information and educational materials along with links to helpful sites.
For more information about Lab Central Connect, please contact qualitylabs@jointcommission.org. Information about Joint Commission Connect can be found online at http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/TJC_Connect.pdf or by calling a laboratory accreditation account executive at 630-792-3007.
Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission seeks to continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value. The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 10,300 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 6,500 other health care organizations that provide long term care, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services. The Joint Commission currently certifies more than 2,000 disease-specific care programs, focused on the care of patients with chronic illnesses such as stroke, joint replacement, stroke rehabilitation, heart failure and many others. The Joint Commission also provides health care staffing services certification for more than 750 staffing offices. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. Learn more about The Joint Commission at www.jointcommission.org.
