CLSI Partners With CDC to Increase Effectiveness of Laboratory Practice Guidelines
9/5/2017
Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA—The Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are entering the fifth year of a cooperative agreement intended to increase effectiveness and adoption of model laboratory practice guidelines. A laboratory practice guideline is a written recommendation for voluntary, standardized approaches for medical laboratory testing.
CLSI’s role in the project has been to develop metrics to evaluate the awareness, adoption, adaptation, implementation, and impact of two point-of-care laboratory practice guidelines (Point-of-Care Blood Glucose Testing in Acute and Chronic Care Facilities [POCT12] and Glucose Monitoring in Settings Without Laboratory Support [POCT13]). Through the use of surveys and focus groups based on these two guidelines, CLSI created a quality improvement plan to identify gaps in the laboratory practice guideline lifecycle. In year four of this cooperative project, CLSI began implementing this improvement plan. In the last year of the project, which began on September 1, 2017, CLSI will initiate the remainder of this improvement plan and analyze its effect, based on selected metrics.
For more information about the CLSI and CDC partnership, contact Patrick McGinn at pmcginn@clsi.org or +1.484.588.5933.
CLSI sets the standard for quality in medical laboratory testing. A not-for-profit membership organization, CLSI brings together the global laboratory community for the advancement of a common cause: to foster excellence in laboratory medicine.
For nearly 50 years, our members, volunteers, and customers have made CLSI a respected, transformative leader in the development and implementation of medical laboratory testing standards. Through our unified efforts, we will continue to set and uphold the standards that drive quality test results, enhance patient care delivery, and improve health care around the world.
By using CLSI standards, laboratorians can improve process quality, speed the development of standard operating procedures, and implement safer practices with greater ease and efficiency.