Quality initiatives

A strategic instrument for attaining set goals

Quality approaches are an instrument for change that can achieve a dynamic of continuous improvement, both in the operation of the laboratory as well as in satisfying the requirements of all laboratory clients. These approaches are a collective project initiated by management and must be supported and shared by the entire staff.

To meet the needs of its clients, the LNS has implemented the following policy areas:

• Compliance with good business practices and ethics, taking into account expectations for independence, transparency and openness that arise;
• Strict compliance with current legislation;
• Management by qualified personnel in sufficient numbers who are directly involved with the project quality initiatives;
• Assurance of the best conditions for carrying out analysis by means of continuous training that targets the ongoing development of technical skills and the implementation and maintenance of efficient equipment;
• Continuous monitoring of performance in the Laboratory through regular internal and external checking;
• Effective handling of complaints and irregularities in order to develop corrective actions;
• Continuous process optimization.

Progressive and pragmatic management style

With its involvement in a strict regulatory framework, the aim of the entire medical biology laboratory is to provide patients and prescribing physicians with the results of analysis of biological products that will contribute to screening, diagnosis, prevention and therapeutic follow-up for specific pathologies (thus improving the medical care of patients).

In this context, the process approach adopted by the LNS operates at four additional levels and results in specific aactions at each of these levels.

The first level is planning and scientific benchmarks for the desired practice. At this stage, the action can be understood to be ‘Say what to do’ and then write it down. The next level is actual professional practice involving concrete action. Here, the action can be understood to be ‘Do what you said’ (follow up on what you wrote). These two steps can be summarized as follows: ‘Write what you do and do what you have written’.

The next stage is to take steps to evaluate professional practice, that is to say checking (external checking = external recognition by competent bodies + internal checking  = continuous assessment for purposes of continuous improvement). This corresponds to ‘Check what you have done’.

And finally, after  planning, action and checking, what remains to be implemented, to the degree possible, is the improvement of action. Thus, what remains is: ‘Do a better job’.

Compliance with ISO standards in order that the services provided can meet the needs of clients

Several international ISO standards are already in effect at the Laboratory. ISO 15189:2022 relates to medical laboratories (in the departments of morphological pathology, medical biology, microbiology and genetics). ISO 17025:2017 applies to the department of Forensic medicine, laboratories for the protection of health and the technical platform of analytical toxicology – pharmaceutical chemistry).