The College of American Pathologists Laboratory Accreditation Programme

The Laboratory Accreditation Programme (LAP) offered by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) was begun in 1961. It is a voluntary peer review programme with the goal of laboratory improvement to excellence. It presently accredits more than 4300 laboratories throughout the world, although the majority are in the United States and Canada. Accreditation is contingent upon continuing successful performance in the CAP proficiency testing programmes, as well as passing biennial on-site laboratory inspections. These on-site inspections are done by practising laboratorians who use checklists appropriate for the various laboratory disciplines. Several governmental regulatory agencies (e.g. the Health Care Financing Agency) as well as private agencies (e.g. the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) accept the LAP in place of their own programmes for laboratory accreditation.