NEWTON – Newton Memorial Hospital has earned AABB accreditation for Laboratory and Point-of-Care Testing.

Accreditation follows an intensive on-site assessment by specially trained AABB assessors and establishes that the level of technical and administrative performance within the facility meets or exceeds the standards set by AABB. By successfully meeting those requirements, Newton Memorial joins similar facilities located throughout the United States and around the world that also have earned AABB Accreditation.

“The AABB’s Accreditation procedures are voluntary,” Newton Memorial Hospital President & CEO Tom Senker said. “We have sought AABB Accreditation because this program assists facilities throughout the world in achieving excellence by promoting a level of professional and technical expertise that contributes to quality performance and patient safety.”

AABB’s Accreditation Program contributes to the quality and safety of collecting, processing, testing, distributing and administering blood and cellular therapy products. The Accreditation Program assesses the quality and the operational systems in place within a facility. The basis for assessment is compliance with AABB standards, Code of Federal Regulations and other guidance documents.

The AABB Accreditation Program has been recognized by the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua). In June 1995, AABB was granted “deemed status” as an accrediting organization under the clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA ’88) program. This granting of “deemed status” indicates that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) has found the AABB accreditation process to provide reasonable assurance that the facilities accredited by it meet or exceed the conditions required by federal law and regulations.

Established in 1947, AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks) is an international, not-for-profit association dedicated to the advancement of science and the practice of transfusion medicine and related biological therapies. The association is committee to improving health by developing and delivering standards, accreditation and educational programs and services to optimize patient and donor care and safety.

Newton Memorial Hospital houses a full-service laboratory and uses Mayo Medical Laboratory (Mayo Clinic) as its primary reference laboratory. That means that in certain cases, laboratory tests performed at Newton Memorial are transported via air to Mayo Medical Laboratory with test results often available the following day through a computer interface.

For those in need of laboratory testing, specimens will continue to be collected at all Newton Memorial Hospital Lab Connection sites, which are located at: the Sparta Health & Wellness Center, 89 Sparta Avenue, Sparta; Milford Health & Wellness Center, 111 East Catharine Street, Milford, PA; Newton Memorial Hospital, 175 High Street, Newton; Norman A. Silbert Medical Office Building, 222 High Street, Newton; and Vernon Urgent Care, 212 Route 94, Vernon; and Sussex Lab Connection, 123 Newton-Sparta Road, Newton.

For an extensive list of Newton Memorial Hospital Lab Connection locations as well as hours of operation and telephone numbers, please visit www.alllifelong.org and click on Lab & X-Ray at the top of the home page.