Torrance Memorial Medical Center is the first in the nation to receive the Leading Laboratories recognition from The Joint Commission and the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP). The two-year designation serves as proof of Torrance Memorial’s commitment to laboratory excellence and to help improve patient outcomes.
Torrance Memorial underwent a rigorous application process to receive the recognition, including a review of its outcomes, indicators, metrics, and evidence. Additionally, it had to demonstrate excellence in four key areas:
- Elevating quality outcomes
- Supporting professional development
- Cultivating trusted leadership
- Promoting laboratory visibility
With a focus on building a high-quality, state-of-the-art laboratory, the Torrance Memorial Department of Pathology and Clinical Laboratory (DPCL) initiated a five-year strategic plan based on six key pillars:
- People and culture
- Quality
- Financials
- Innovation
- Education
- Growth
In 2021, DPCL implemented a robust quality management program. The quality program helped define, establish, and maintain a collaborative, systematic and organization-wide approach to quality management.
Additional initiatives have included implementing core lab automation to reduce the outsourcing of select tests, increasing volume of outreach business, reducing turnaround time, and improving efficiency and productivity. Through a newly produced quarterly newsletter, the DPCL expanded engagement and increased visibility of these new innovations.
Central to the growth of the DPCL was the need to develop high-performing teams. In addition to supporting career development, lab leadership engaged in regular rounding to foster a motivating work climate – recognizing and rewarding outstanding team and individual contributions.
“It is an honor to be the first in the nation to receive the Leading Laboratories recognition,” said Keith Hobbs, executive vice president, Torrance Memorial Medical Center. “This designation reflects the commitment to excellence by every member of the Torrance Memorial Pathology and Clinical Laboratory.”
“We congratulate Torrance Memorial Medical Center on being the first in the nation to receive the Leading Laboratories recognition,” added Heather Hurley, executive director, Laboratory Accreditation, The Joint Commission. “As the first hospital laboratory to receive this designation, Torrance Memorial is demonstrating its commitment to laboratory staff through professional development and trusted leadership. It also is promoting laboratory visibility, including the complex work of laboratory staff to provide the continuum of care, to its organization, patients, and community.”
The Leading Laboratories recognition — developed and refined by laboratory leaders — is available to all Joint Commission-accredited hospital laboratories.
Learn more about the Leading Laboratories recognition.
Earlier this summer, The Joint Commission’s Department of Standards and Survey Methods discussed areas of interest for the Laboratory Services Accreditation Program, including what you need to know right now to help your organization stay up to date.
View the recording.
A final rule was issued in July to revise the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) proficiency testing (PT) regulations addressing “current analytes or newer technologies,” as well as making “technical changes to PT referral regulations,” per the final rule.
The final rule includes:
- The addition and deletion of analytes or tests that require PT.
- Updates to the criteria for acceptable performance and administrative processes for CLIA PT programs.
- An update to align the CLIA regulations with the statute (42 U.S.C. 263a (i)(4)), which does not exclude waived tests from the ban on improper PT referral.
- Revisions to PT requirements related to addition and deletion of analytes or microbiology tests.
- Changes to the criteria for acceptable performance and administrative processes for PT programs (§§ 493.2 and 493.801 through 493.959) that will go into effect on July 11, 2024.
By 2023, it is anticipated that federal reimbursements for some common laboratory tests may be cut by 15% — following a 10% cut in 2020.
These cuts, which were mandated by the Protecting Access to Medicare Act, may result in the loss of millions of dollars in annual revenue for some large health systems. Factoring in the damage done by the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare organizations are being asked more than ever to do more with less.
A new white paper from The Joint Commission — “Improve Quality and Safety in Your Laboratory While Reducing Costs” — provides an overview of some of the revenue challenges hospitals and health systems are facing, as well as details cost reduction strategies they can implement that maintain quality and safety in the laboratory.
Access the white paper.
Many laboratorians have experienced issues caused by ambiguous, fragmented, and non-standard laboratory test names, leading to considerable confusion in ordering — as well as serious patient safety concerns.
In a webinar hosted by The Joint Commission — “Hear how laboratories can benefit from standardization and strive for excellence: Discussion with a peer pathologist” — Dr. Ila Singh, Chief of Laboratory Medicine and Informatics at Texas Children’s Hospital and Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, talked about her initiative that addresses the multitude of issues surrounding the current structure of laboratory test naming.
During the webinar, Dr. Singh said inappropriate lab test orders are very common.
“Various studies show that 1o to 30% of lab tests performed in the U.S. are either unnecessary or incorrect, and this is not even approximate — those tests that are delayed,” she said. “If you think that these numbers are small, this is out of a total of 13 billion tests performed in the U.S.”
Watch the webinar to learn more about what Dr. Singh thinks can be done to remedy the issues surrounding laboratory testing issues.
The Joint Commission is joining the Biden Administration’s Health Sector Climate Pledge to reduce the carbon contributions emanating from the healthcare sector and to help make healthcare organizations more resilient to the effects of climate change.
The Joint Commission plans to reduce its emissions by a minimum of 50% by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The Joint Commission also is committed to working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other hospital and health sector organizations to support their efforts to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint.
Jonathan B. Perlin, MD, PhD, MSHA, MACP, FACMI, The Joint Commission’s president and CEO, targeted climate change as a top strategic priority.
“Decarbonization and sustainability are critical to a health agenda, especially because climate change is having a direct and inequitable impact on the health and well-being of people globally,” Dr. Perlin said. “Our mission is to continuously improve healthcare for the public, and we cannot fulfill that without addressing climate change. As the largest standards-setting and accrediting body in healthcare, it is vital that we take a leadership role and work with healthcare organizations nationally and internationally to reduce the carbon footprint.”
Recently, The Joint Commission convened a group of healthcare organizations to learn about the steps they took to address their impact on the climate. Moving forward, The Joint Commission plans to identify and curate resources for organizations to help them take steps to reduce their own carbon emissions, and to make those resources readily available.
The webpage provides links to materials developed by The Joint Commission and key healthcare-related organizations, such as the National Academy of Medicine and government agencies (including the Office of the Surgeon General and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health). The content focuses on organization and system-level resources.
The Joint Commission hopes healthcare workers find the information useful and welcomes suggestions for improvement.
An online toolkit from The Joint Commission — the Readiness Roadmap — will help laboratories better locate available resources for survey based on where they are in the accreditation process.
The toolkit is accessible on The Joint Commission’s Connect extranet site under the Resources and Tools tab. It features resources sorted by categories, including:
- Checklists
- Crosswalks
- Webinars
- Videos
For more information or questions, organizations should reach out to their account executive.
Joint Commission Resources (JCR) has updated PolicySource. These latest updates to the sample policies and procedures (P&Ps) resource reflect the July 1 standards changes, including test ordering procedures and procedures for investigating suspected transfusion-related adverse events for laboratories.