ISO 15189-accredited laboratories fulfill the JCI Hospital Accreditation Standard requirements for the use of referral laboratories: report of a consensus meeting

Accreditation of healthcare services is recommended to ensure operation according to the highest quality standards. Various initiatives, such as legislation or accreditation by ISO or JCI, may be active to support and improve quality. The growing trend toward JCI hospital accreditation raised the concern of redundancy between JCI requirements for the use of referral laboratories and the ISO 15189 accreditation for medical laboratories. This would result in needless administrative efforts for hospital laboratories to collect and maintain required documentation, as the JCI quality requirements would be guaranteed given that the referral laboratory is ISO 15189 accredited for those examinations. A consensus meeting was organized by the Working Group for Hospital Accreditation of the Belgian Zorgnet-Icuro network, the University Hospitals of Leuven and the Red Cross to discuss the avoidance of any redundancy between both standards and to issue best practice guidelines for referral laboratories. It was concluded that JCI measurable elements for referral laboratories are covered by the ISO 15189 accreditation scope. The article substantiates the consensus that JCI and ISO quality requirements are harmonized and that accurate knowledge and interpretation of prevailing quality standards are essential to avoid redundancy in quality measures.