Surprise inspection pulls no surprises for 66 MDG personnel

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Geoff Buteau
  • 66 Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HANSCOM AFB, Mass. --  For members of the 66th Medical Group, March 21 was far from a typical day. It began with an early morning notification that inspectors from the College of American Pathologists were at the gate and ready to conduct their surprise inspection of the Clinic's laboratory facilities, required every two years for the facility to earn re-accreditation from the civilian organization.

The College of American Pathologists inspection ensures that clinical labs are worthy of accreditation by answering any number of about 2,000 questions regarding lab guidelines, procedures and quality control, as well as maintaining equipment and documents.

Hanscom was last inspected by CAP in May, 2006. There is a six-month window in which the inspection can take place, which for Hanscom is every even year, from January 13 to June 13.

"This year they came a little early," said Tech. Sgt. John Carbon, non commissioned officer in charge of Laboratory Services.

Sergeant Carbon said he had been through about five or six of these inspections throughout his career, but added that the inspector was "hands down the toughest and most thorough inspector I've ever experienced."

"It's good, because it gives the lab honest feedback on what we're doing," Sergeant Carbon said. "You want someone like that, it validates that the lab is functioning at a high competency level."

Every lab must follow the guidelines and documentations required by CAP. During the inspection the lab is tested on instructions, operating procedures, and how personnel run specimens.

"This is the most stringent inspection in DoD labs," said Capt. Lorenzo Gabiola, chief of Laboratory Services. "It primarily checks to see if the lab is meeting the quality of U.S. lab standards the organization lays out."

In past inspections, labs there were different levels of accreditation based on a score from 1-100, but this year, that was changed to a pass/fail system.

Captain Gabiola believes Hanscom would have received an "Accreditation with Distinction" if the organization hadn't changed their evaluations to a pass/fail scale.

"The feedback we received was very good," said Captain Gabiola. "The inspector said that 99.9 percent of our performance exceeded expectations and that it was an outstanding performance."

"The bulk of the questions were quality assurance and we had no deficiency in that. The program is well-maintained," Captain Gabiola said, adding how proud he was of the entire laboratory team for their efforts especially to Technical Sergeant Bowes who was instrumental in garnering this long-awaited lab accreditation.

"After this, I feel like we're ready for any inspection. This is the most important lab inspection and we were very strong in it," Captain Gabiola said.