OLA Requirements
Do you struggle to meet these OLA Requirements? Through interactive activities, this workshop will provide you with the opportunity to engage with colleagues in sharing industry best practices. Individual topic discussions will be facilitated by the CLMA Education Committee as well as members who have had great success in meeting the tough requirements – and who have figured out the ins and outs we should all know!
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View a 3.5 minute video about the process to create Version 6.0 of the OLA Requirements and Guidance Information. Participants, Scientific Committees, Advisory Panel members, stakeholders and QMP−LS staff each have important roles in ensuring our most important document is current and useful in helping laboratories to prepare for an assessment, and for guiding our assessors to apply the requirements consistently.
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Do you struggle to meet these OLA Requirements? Through interactive activities, this workshop will provide you with the opportunity to engage with colleagues in sharing industry best practices. Individual topic discussions will be facilitated by the CLMA Education Committee as well as members who have had great success in meeting the tough requirements – and who have figured out the ins and outs we should all know!
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The current version of
OLA Requirements and Guidance Information (Version 5.1 December 2011) is due for a complete review to ensure continued suitability in light of changes to the reference sources and current methodologies. The current requirements and guidance information will be reviewed extensively during 2013 with an updated version 6.0 anticipated for release in December 2013.
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Registration open for 2 workshops: Friday, March 21 and March 22, 2013.
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Where?
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Dates
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Reply Deadline
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QMP-LS - Toronto
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Thursday, March 21, 2013
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February 21, 2013
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Barrie – Royal Victoria Regional Health Care Centre
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Friday, March 22, 2013
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February 22, 2013
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Workshop runs 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Registration Confirmation will be sent by email to those attending.
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QMP-LS/OLA conducts an annual review of each supporting reference for its accreditation requirements. In 2012, this process commenced in April. The purpose of this review is to ensure that references are up to date and that the current versions support what is required by OLA.
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Have you ever asked yourself where the information for the Ontario Laboratory Accreditation (OLA) requirements comes from? Does it appear in visions to the OLA Director? Is there a dusty oracle secreted away in the bowels of the QMP–LS office building? Strange as it may seem the answer to these questions is none of the above.
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The current version of References for the OLA Requirements and Guidance Information (Version 5.1) is due for review to ensure continued suitability of the references to the documents and methodologies which they support. All laboratory professionals in Ontario are invited to annual review the current requirement references, discuss their suitability and provide feedback to OLA.
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Around 150 laboratories have now undergone two OLA peer assessment visits. The following table revists the top ten non-conformances seen in the first assessment visit of those laboratories (round 1) and compares performance following the second assessment visit (round 2).
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Since September 2008, OLA requirements have included six separate requirements for internal auditing (prior to this, they were Good Practice Recommendations). As a backgrounder, read the QMP–LS News article Internal Auditing – Raising the Bar Beyond Self-Assessment and the Eye on OLA: Internal Auditing: the Ten Steps, in the March 2008, Issue 124 . The chart below shows the number of times each of the six requirements have been cited from 2008–2011.
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QMP–LS is pleased to announce the release of the OLA Requirements Version 5.1 and completion of the annual requirement references review. The release of the new version is necessary because of one change in legislation and one change in regulation. Laboratories with OLA assessment notification dates after December 23, 2011 will be assessed using version 5.1.
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Over the years, OLA has received many requests for an editable version of our requirements. After discussion with the OLA Advisory Panel, OLA staff has prepared two versions of the OLA Checklist 5.0 that laboratories can use to save information for their own record keeping.
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Under an agreement between the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Ontario Medical Association, OLA accreditation is mandatory for all licensed medical laboratories in Ontario. This month, we provide an update on Ontario assessment visits, conformance rates, and certificates held.
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By Terri Molloy
There are several requirements addressing proficiency testing (PT) which licensed laboratories in Ontario must meet in order to be accredited. OLA Version 5.0:
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VII.9 The laboratory shall participate in interlaboratory comparisons such as those organized by external quality assessment schemes for all examinations included within accreditation. When a formal interlaboratory program is not available or feasible, see VII.10.
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VII.9.2 Proficiency testing and external quality assessment samples shall be treated as much as possible in the same manner as patient samples.
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VII.9.3 There shall be no interlaboratory communication on proficiency testing and/or external quality assessment data before results are reported.
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VII.9.4 The laboratory shall document and record results from proficiency testing and/or external quality assurance programs.
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All laboratories undergoing assessment and all assessors are advised that QMP–LS has refined its definition of a major non-conformance to clarify what types of issues constitute a potential risk to patient safety.
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The purpose of this article is to clarify that this requirement applies to all staff involved in clinical laboratory work (as defined by the scope of accreditation)—including medical and scientific staff.
Version 5 of the OLA requirements was released in December 2010. In it, OLA requires that laboratories assess the competency of each person’s performance of assigned tasks. This means that accredited laboratories need to assess the performance of both medical and scientific staff involved in clinical laboratory work, as defined by the scope of accreditation.
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The current version of references for the OLA Requirements and Guidance Information (Version 5) is due for review to ensure continued suitability of the references to the documents and methodologies which they support.
All laboratory professionals in Ontario are invited to review the current requirement references, discuss their suitability and provide feedback to OLA. Your comments will be tabulated and presented to our stakeholders, scientific committees and Advisory Panel members as part of an extensive consultation process that will culminate in the release of a new version of references for the OLA Requirements and Guidance Information (Version 5).
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