Cornwall Regional Hospital Lab, Jamaica
1. What was the hardest thing to do in order to get accredited?
- One of the hardest parts of the accreditation process would be clear and consistent communication.
2. What was the easiest?
- The commitment of the staff in getting it done, in particular the enthusiasm of the young people in achieving this milestone.
- The assistance provided by the Senior Medical Officer and the Administrator for the Laboratory, leading up to us receiving the accreditation.
3. What was the most important contributing factor to getting accredited?
- The leadership and guidance offered to the staff was effective. The team responding positively by coming together and going beyond the call of duty to support the successful implementation of the quality management system. The mentorship support offered by the Implementing partner, GLESSN team through PEPFAR was far reaching as they guided us adeptly through the process and we are eternally grateful for their support.
4. What steps did you take?
- Develop an action plan and share the plan with the staff and making everyone fully aware of any specific role they need to play and target date for completion.
- We conducted a lot of training and sensitization sessions ensuring that persons were evaluated to assess the effectiveness of the training,
- Develop a well-documented quality management system,
- Ensuring internal audits were conducted annually and root cause and necessary corrective actions were implemented,
- There was regular monitoring with spot checks conducted during the day, at nights and on weekends to ensure conformance with the requirements,
- Nonconformities identified were addressed as part of the continual improvement process.
5. What were the biggest mistakes you made?
- Underestimating the time that was needed to complete some actions.
- Unfortunately, relying on third parties in some instances, instead of going directly to the resource personnel. This resulted in delay in the implementation of some processes.
6. What is the best advice you can give to others?
- Ensure that top management is sensitized to quality management training from the accreditation body, SLMTA, PEPFAR implementing partner or any such similar training. And that they fully understand the process and the important role they play in the implementation of the quality management system.