208559 Laboratory System Improvement Program

Monday, November 9, 2009

Mary Shaffran, MPA , Association Public Health Laboratories (APHL), Silver Spring, MD
  
The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) officially launched its Laboratory System Improvement Program (L-SIP) in 2007. The mission of this program is to establish a system that measures the performance of State Public Health Laboratory Systems and supports their continuous improvement. The program targets improvement of the public health laboratory system through the collaborative work of partners to: assess system performance; plan for system improvements; and implement improvement strategies. The State Public Health Laboratory System all the participants in public health

testing, including those who initiate testing and those who ultimately use the test results.

services to provide:

*A guide for states to improve public health laboratory systems—an incentive for laboratories to reach for “gold” standards

*A means to strengthen collaboration among participants in the public health laboratory system

*An effective way to educate system partners and elected officials about the system and laboratory services

*A practical tool to help identify areas in need of advocacy and increased resources

*A source of baseline data to support accreditation

Since the beginning of program development, more than 25 states have been involved through committee work, piloting the tool, field testing the tool or participating as an assessment site. Sixteen states have completed an L-SIP assessment to date.

Additionally, APHL is developing and field testing a performance standards tool for the Canadian Public Health Laboratory System. This process will also be described in the presentation.

Learning Objectives:
*Describe the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) officially launched its Laboratory System Improvement Program *Explain the concept of the State Public Health Laboratory System *Describe the performance standards development process APHL used for the Canadian Public Health Laboratory System

Keywords: Quality Improvement, Performance Measures

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Senior Director of Public Health Programs, and I direct the Laboratory Systems and Standards and Quality Systems activites, of which the Laboratory Systems Improvement Program is a part.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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