| Allegan General Hospital 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. AGH’s Laboratory underwent a rigorous unannounced on-site survey in July 2011. A team of Joint Commission expert surveyors evaluated AGH’s Laboratory for compliance with standards of care that directly affect the quality and safety of diagnostic services and patient care.
"In achieving Joint Commission accreditation, Allegan General has demonstrated its commitment to the highest level of care for its patients," said 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 Allegan General Hospital 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,” said Jeanne Smith, AGH’s Laboratory Manager. “Joint Commission accreditation provides us a framework to take us to the next level and helps create a culture of excellence. Achieving Joint Commission accreditation is a major step toward maintaining excellence and continually improving the care we provide.”
The Joint Commission’s 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.
AGH’s Laboratory is open 24/7, no appointments are necessary. Patients just need to bring in their insurance card and physician orders for what they need done, such as a blood draw or screening for strep throat. For more information on services provided by the laboratory, please call (269) 686-4030.
Allegan General Hospital is a community hospital that focuses on providing exceptional, compassionate and personalized healthcare to the community it serves. The hospital has been named two years in a row by Modern Healthcare magazine as one of the nation’s Best Places to Work in Healthcare. Allegan General provides a wide range of healthcare services, including bariatrics, surgery, sleep center, emergency, physical rehabilitation and mental health. For more information about the hospital, visit www.aghosp.org.
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