Accreditation of medical laboratories in The Netherlands

Among the medical laboratory professionals, a growing interest exists in the systematic application of quality assurance to their own practice, and consequently in The Netherlands, there is an increasing request for an official accreditation of the quality management system and the competence of the professionals through Coordinatie Commissie voor Kwaliteitsbewaking in Laboratoria in de gezondheidszorg (CCKLtest), the Dutch Accreditation Board for Medical Laboratories. This article gives an overview of the current situation in The Netherlands; regarding the standards, the rules for accreditation, the training and selection assessors and what meanwhile is achieved. Since 1994, 60 clinical laboratories have been recognized by CCKLtest and another 40 laboratories have requested accreditation and are waiting for the inspection in 2001. Thus, 25% of all clinical laboratories in The Netherlands will be inspected within the current year.