(Denison, IA) – Crawford County Memorial Hospital recently received a ‘no deficiencies’ report for the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) survey as reported by Terry Brockman, CCMH Lab Manager.

The on‐site CLIA survey is regulated by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and includes all laboratory testing (except research) performed on humans in the U.S. In total, CLIA covers approximately 260,000 laboratory entities.

“The CLIA survey is a comprehensive review of the CCMH laboratory policies, procedures, quality control, and quality assurance,” Brockman said. “It’s to check and make sure that we’re giving out quality lab results. The surveyors come in and inspect all of our records, and they look at our operational processes to make sure everything is in order.”

Brockman noted the CCMH laboratory department undergoes a CLIA survey every two years.

“When looking for deficiencies, the surveyors are examining records for accuracy and quality. They look at more than just policy and procedure, they’re looking for quality control and quality assurance,” Brockman commented.

A CCMH lab employee for 38 years, Brockman explained the CLIA survey is also designed to be an education tool for lab personnel.

“The survey is designed to be both a quality review and educational. We didn’t have any deficiencies this time. The surveyors said it doesn’t happen very often that they find a lab with no writeups or deficiencies. This is a really important survey for CCMH from a quality standpoint. CMS sets the rules and regulations but for us it’s all just good lab practice that everyone should be doing ‐ that everyone should want to be doing.”