The College of American Pathologists (CAP) has published a list of 41 laboratories that have continuously completed its voluntary accreditation program for quality and proficiency standards since the program's inception in 1964.
CAP noted that the program helps labs comply with regulations from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which has an oversight role through the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) of 1988. Accreditation includes onsite checks by laboratory peer inspectors every two years and compliance with quality and procedural checklists that are regularly updated. Through CAP accreditation, labs may also show that they are keeping up to date with new technologies in the pathology field, such as information technology, artificial intelligence, and liquid biopsies.
Labs that made CAP's list of long-running program participants include the Baton Rouge General Medical Center in Baton Rouge, LA; Mercy Hospital & Medical Center in Chicago; the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Clinical Laboratories at Mount Zion in San Francisco; and the Morton Hospital in Taunton, MA.
As of June 1, a total of 8,066 laboratories were accredited by CAP.
