Notification to College of American Pathologists Accredited Laboratories: IQCP Update

Dear CAP Accreditation Participant:

The Laboratory Accreditation Program is pleased to announce changes to streamline and simplify the process for completing the CAP forms for individualized quality control plans (IQCP). Effective immediately, the CAP has discontinued use of the IQCP Summary form and has updated the List of IQCPs form to include new fields to allow one form to be completed for inspection preparation. The changes will ensure that inspectors have the information needed to identify all IQCPs in use, as well as the test sites where they are being used to audit laboratory records for risk assessment, quality control plans, and quality assessment records.

The checklist requirement COM.50200 (IQCP Test List/Summary) currently states in the 2016 checklist edition that both the "List" and "Summary" forms are required; however, this requirement will be revised in the 2017 checklist edition to include use of the new single form. Laboratories may implement this change effective immediately (prior to publication of the 2017 edition). The updated List of IQCPs form is now available for download from the IQCP Resources page on the CAP website. Previous versions of the IQCP forms already completed in preparation for upcoming inspections with the 2016 checklist edition are still considered acceptable; however, the previous versions of those forms will no longer be accessible from the CAP website after the release of this notification.

For your reference, the IQCP frequently asked questions and updated instructions for completing the IQCP form are available on the CAP's IQCP Resources page. The resource page also contains a new optional form for annual assessment of an IQCP that you may find helpful.

Questions? Contact us at 800-323-4040 or accred@cap.org.