City of Hope recently was awarded continued accreditation after a two-day unannounced College of American Pathologists (CAP) biennial inspection of pathology and laboratory services.
The CAP inspectors surveyed areas in the Department of Pathology, which includes transfusion medicine, clinical pathology (chemistry, microbiology hematology and point of care services), anatomic pathology (surgical pathology, cytogenetics, hematopathology and cytology) and molecular pathology. The HLA (human leukocyte antigen) Laboratory also was inspected.
Several surveyed areas received perfect scores and other areas received high marks for excellence in clinical care. “We are excited by our flawless performance in transfusion,” said Dale Adams, Pharm.D., vice president and chief pharmacy officer. “We are in the midst of expanding transfusion medicine in order to best meet the needs of our patients, who require 36,000 units of blood annually.”
The transfusion team is led by Sean Wang, M.D., M.P.H., chief of the Division of Transfusion Medicine, Gay Almquist, director of the Donor Apheresis Center, Mark Kaniewski, compliance director in the Division of Transfusion Medicine, and Linda Aldridge, director of transfusion medicine laboratories. “The team does excellent work,” Adams said. Transfusion also received a perfect score on the last American Association of Blood Banks survey.
The HLA Lab, which is integral to the success of City of Hope’s transplant program, also received a perfect score on the CAP survey. “Our HLA Lab, led by David Senitzer, Ph.D., is exceptional,” said Adams. “The results of every audit in that area over the last several years have been stellar.”
The HLA Lab has not received a single deficiency from CAP or the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics inspectors in more than 10 years due to efforts of HLA lab staff such as Laima Gaidulis, general supervisor, Lynn Palmer, business manager, and all technical and clerical laboratory staff, Adams said.
The Division of Anatomic Pathology, led by Sharon Wilczynski, M.D., Ph.D., also received a perfect score from the CAP inspectors.
In addition to those listed above, Adams recognized Lawrence M. Weiss, M.D., chair of the Department of Pathology and laboratory director, Karen Chang, M.D., chief of the Division of Clinical Pathology, John Palmer, department technical director in the divisions of Anatomic Pathology/Cytology and Clinical Pathology, and each supervisor, laboratory staff and ancillary team member within the surveyed areas as instrumental in the reaccreditation.
