The NAACLS News

The National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS) is inviting applications for the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The agency’s office is in the Chicago metro area. Residence in the Chicago metro area is not required for the CEO. The agency seeks a dynamic and visionary leader to guide the organization in its accreditation role. NAACLS is an equal opportunity employer.

The NAACLS Board of Directors is requesting public comment for a proposed Standard change. To view the potential Standards changes, as well as the process to submit your comments, please download the file linked below.

Public Comment for Standard VII – Phlebotomy

In August 2022, after 16 years with NAACLS, I will begin my next adventure by retiring.

In a well known movie, Queen Elizabeth II says to Tony Blair, “You are my 10^th Prime Minister”. Recently I realized I will be able to say to my last NAACLS President, “You’re my 9^th President”. What I discovered during my time with NAACLS is that all Board compositions take on a unique collective personality. I have enjoyed getting to know them all and collaborating with them.

Over 16 years, a few NAACLS staff members have retired or left for other opportunities but there still remains a core that preceded my time at NAACLS. And, of course, NAACLS also has more recent additions to the staff. All of my co-workers are exemplary professionals and it has been my privilege to work with them.

NAACLS volunteers constantly amaze me by their remarkable dedication to NAACLS, the tasks at hand, the breadth of their vision, and collegiality.

My personal plans for the next adventure are not fixed but I am pretty sure they will involve (in no particular order): dogs, cooking, editing (something…anything!), time with friends and family, gardening/landscaping, and hopefully a trip to see the Northern Lights.

I thank all the members of the NAACLS community for the opportunity to serve you as CEO of NAACLS and hope to keep in touch will many of you after retirement.

My best to you,

Dianne

Due to the virtual nature of CLEC 2021, NAACLS presented its update as an on-demand video. NAACLS Staff is now making this video available to subscribers of the NAACLS News. We highly encourage everyone to watch the entire eight-minute video, as there are significant announcements throughout the whole presentation.

Yasmen Simonian, PhD, MLS(ASCP)CM, FASAHP, Dean of the Dumke College of Health Professions, at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, is a 2021 recipient of Weber State University Alumni Association’s H. Aldous Dixon Award. Dixon Award recipients have demonstrated careers of excellence and have gone above and beyond the call of duty to support students.

Dr. Simonian served on the NAACLS Board of Directors from 2009-2017, during which she served as President from 2015-2017. She also served as a member of the Review Committee for Accredited Programs (RCAP) from 2002-2008.

We at NAACLS salute Dr. Simonian for her outstanding achievements at Weber State University.

We invite you to view a Message From the President, 2020 Program Data, 2020 Board of Directors’ Actions, 2020 Volunteers, Statements of Financial Position for FY ending June 30, 2020, and Rosters for the NAACLS Board, Review Committees and Staff. Please visit the NAACLS website at: https://naacls.org/NAACLS/media/Documents/AnnualReport.pdf  

By Dianne M. Cearlock, MT, PhD, Chief Executive Officer

Board Supports Position Paper

As a result of schedule variations brought about by the pandemic, the NAACLS Board of Directors held an additional meeting this year with a limited agenda. At the January 11, 2021 meeting of the NAACLS Board of Directors, in addition to accreditation awards recommended by the Review Committee on Accredited Programs (RCAP), the following item was addressed:

The white paper entitled, “Standardizing the Professional Title of Medical Laboratory Professionals,” a position paper of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (ASCLS) and the American Society for Clinical Pathology Board of Certification (ASCP BOC), was reviewed. Following discussion, the NAACLS Board of Directors voted to support this position paper. The position paper may be accessed on the NAACLS website.

by Sally Pestana, MT (ASCP)

Many of you reading this were with me in sunny Orlando a year ago for CLEC 2020.  While there may have been a few in attendance who had an inkling of the potential impact the novel Corona virus was to bring to the United States, the vast majority of us had no idea of the way the virus was about to turn our professional and personal lives upside down and inside out in less than thirty days from our time together in Orlando.

I left Orlando to participate in two NAACLS MLT program accreditation visits on the east coast before returning home to Hawaii.  On Thursday, March 5^th, I had an intriguing, but somewhat cryptic email from the largest healthcare provider for Hawaii notifying me and my educator colleagues that student clinical experiences throughout that healthcare system were likely to be “impacted” in the upcoming weeks as the clinical partner tried to shore up their PPE reserves.  While I read it, and thought I understood it, I actually had no idea of how important the “shoring up” would become, and how impactful it would be for the students in so many of my college’s health education programs – within a short couple of weeks.

On Friday, March 6^th, while waiting for the exit interview to start during my final accreditation visit, the health Dean of that east coast college reported to those assembling about an email she had received that morning from a large healthcare group in her city, with the same message I had read the evening before.  I remember thinking, “How BIG is this problem”?  Looking back, it now feels as if I had the tiniest “preview of coming attractions” with those two emails.

NAACLS is offering many exciting virtual events next week, and we hope you will join us!

Let’s Take a Ride Through the NAACLS Standards 

Workshop Webinar; Wednesday, 2/24/21, 7:30am-4:00pm CT.

The purpose of this workshop is to explore the flexibility of the NAACLS Accreditation Process and Standards to ensure programs continue to meet the compliance requirements while adapting and innovating. This workshop will include actual innovative examples used by NAACLS accredited programs.

NAACLS has extended its workshop registration deadline to Friday, 2/19/21, at 5:00 pm CT! 

Please visit https://naacls.org/ for more information and to register! The cost is $250 per person (payments must be received by Friday, so please pay by credit card).

This workshop is being offered solely by NAACLS. You do not need to be a registrant of CLEC 2021 to attend the workshop.

If you are attending CLEC 2021, we invite you to these NAACLS events that are part of CLEC (these events are only open to registrants of CLEC):

Coffee with NAACLS

Thursday, 2/25/21, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm CT.

Join NAACLS review committee members and staff for an informal and free virtual get-together to ask questions about NAACLS Standards and Policies. There is an attendee limit of 85. 

Have a burning question you don’t want to forget? Feel free to ask now. 

NAACLS Virtual Booths

Stop by the NAACLS virtual booth to meet NAACLS staff and volunteers who are looking forward to answering any questions you may have:

• Thursday, 2/25/21, 3:15pm – 4:45pm CT
• Friday, 2/26/21, 11:15am – 1:00pm CT
• Friday, 2/26/21, 3:15pm – 4:45pm CT

NAACLS Update

We hope you will watch the NAACLS Update given by Dr. Peter Hu, President, Board of Directors. ASCLS will provide a link to the NAACLS Update video in the Education Scientific Assembly community and also within the CLEC 2021 Community.

Please note: URL links for NAACLS events at CLEC 2021 will be available only to participants through the CLEC 2021 app. 

We hope to connect with you next week!

The early bird registration deadline for our upcoming pre-CLEC workshop, Let’s Take a Ride Through the NAACLS Standards, is days away.

Registration fees and deadlines are as follows:

$225/person (EARLY BIRD FEE paid in full by 2/3/21)

$250/person (GENERAL FEE paid in full BETWEEN 2/4/21 and 2/17/21)

The purpose of this workshop is to explore the flexibility of the NAACLS Accreditation Process and Standards to ensure programs continue to meet the compliance requirements while adapting and innovating. Actual innovative methods used by NAACLS accredited programs will be discussed.