NEWS
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release – June 23, 2011
Contact: John W. Turner, VP Public Relations, Liz Heath, Public Relations
Specialist, Cayuga Medical Center (607) 274-4498, eheath@cayugamed.org
Cayuga Medical Center Laboratory Earns Joint
Commission Accreditation
Ithaca, NY -- Cayuga Medical Center Laboratory has earned The
Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval™ for accreditation by demonstrating
compliance with The Joint Commission’s national standards for health care
quality and safety in laboratories. The accreditation award recognizes Cayuga
Medical Center’s dedication to continuous compliance with The Joint
Commission’s state-of-the-art standards.
Cayuga Medical Center Laboratory underwent a rigorous
unannounced on-site survey this spring. A team of Joint Commission expert
surveyors evaluated CMC for compliance with standards of care that directly
affect the quality and safety of diagnostic services and patient care.
"In achieving Joint Commission accreditation, Cayuga
Medical Center has demonstrated its commitment to the highest level of care for
its patients," says Jennifer Rhamy, M.B.A., M.A., M.T. (ASCP) SBB, HP,
Executive Director, Laboratory Accreditation Program, The Joint Commission.
“Accreditation is a voluntary process and I commend Cayuga Medical Center for
successfully undertaking this challenge to elevate its standard of care and
instill confidence in the community it serves.”
“With Joint Commission accreditation, we are making a
significant investment in quality on a day-to-day basis from the top down.
Joint Commission accreditation provides us a framework to take our organization
to the next level and helps create a culture of excellence,” says Toni Burger, MBA,
MT(ASCP) Administrative Director, Laboratory. “For our organization, achieving
Joint Commission accreditation is a major step toward maintaining excellence
and continually improving the care we provide.”
The Joint Commission has been evaluating and accrediting
laboratory services since 1979. Their laboratory standards emphasize the
results a laboratory should achieve instead of emphasizing the technical
methods of performing testing, and were developed with input from professional
laboratory organizations. Joint Commission standards address processes that
follow laboratory specimens from the doctor’s order into the laboratory from
specimen collection then back to the patient through result reporting, focusing
on the provision of high quality, safe laboratory services integrated with
patient care. These standards highlight the essential nature of laboratory
services on the actual care and service delivery processes that contribute to and
support the overall health care delivery system.
Cayuga Medical Center is a
204-bed, state-of-the art regional medical center and is affiliated with many
prestigious health care organizations including Cornell University’s Weill
Medical College in New York City, Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo,
NY, the Rochester Heart Institute at Rochester General Hospital in Rochester,
NY, and Mayo Medical Laboratories. For more information on services available
at the medical center and its satellite campuses, please visit
www.cayugamed.org or call (607) 274-4498.
