Accreditation of laboratories of the Centre Epidemiology and Microbiology NIPH
Marie Brůčková
The Laboratories of
the Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology (LCEM) of the National Institute of Public Health take the liberty of letting both their
colleagues and the public know that they became holders of two more
accreditation certificates on February 7, 2005.
LCEM include 24 national reference laboratories
accredited by the Czech Accreditation Institute according to ČSN EN ISO/IEC
17025 in 2002 as „Test Laboratory
No. 1206.4“. After a three-year period with annual supervising
interventions of the Czech Accreditation Institute auditors, LCEM were
reaccredited for another five-year period on February 7, 2005.
On February 7, 2005, LCEM obtained another accreditation certificate from the Czech
Accreditation Institute as „Public
Health Laboratory No. 8002“ according to ČSN ISO 15189.
With the respective EU standard being in force
since May 2004 only, LCEM are the second laboratories accredited in the Czech
Republic, after the Reference Cytogenetic Laboratory of the Institute of
Hematology and Blood Transfusion whose accreditation gained the attention of
the mass media several days earlier.
The ČSN ISO 15189 criteria are exacting and to
be met, systematic efforts are needed from the laboratories to assume the full
responsibility for the tested patient.
We are very happy that LCEM met the
requirements of both of the standards, hoping that they will keep up the top
quality service.
Another important factor is international
recognition of the Czech Accreditation Institute as the national accreditation
authority involved in multilateral agreements within the International Laboratory Accreditation
Cooperation (ILAC) and International Accreditation Forum (IAF). This is a
crucial aspect from the point of view of the EU activities in progress.
RNDr. Marie Brůčková,
CSc.
Head, Laboratories of
the Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology, National Institute of
Public Health
Figure 1: J.Volf, MD, Ph.D., the
director of the
National Institute of Public Health, receiving the accreditation
documents
Figure 2: Accreditation certificate
for Laboratories of
the
Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology according to ČSN EN
ISO15189