REMINDER: Accreditation Required for COVID-19 Diagnostic Services
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The following content has been provided by, and republished with permission from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia (CPSBC). |
In June 2020, BC’s Provincial Health Officer (PHO) issued a public health order stating that any site, laboratory or company that charged for symptomatic or asymptomatic point-of-care COVID-19 testing was required to receive full independent accreditation through the Diagnostic Accreditation Program (DAP). The public health order was issued to ensure that all COVID-19 testing facilities, whether public or private, were compliant with DAP Laboratory Medicine Accreditation Standards before patient collection and testing could begin, thereby supporting a consistent delivery of safe, high-quality delivery of COVID-19 testing across BC.
Through the pandemic the DAP has supported a large number of pharmacies receiving accreditation to allow the delivery of COVID-19 diagnostic services. However, many who the DAP have been in contact with are unaware of the accreditation requirement and have commenced testing prior to achieving accreditation which is in contravention of the public health order issued by Dr. Henry.
The DAP is seeking to increase awareness across all regulated healthcare professionals of the regulatory requirements for providing point-of-care services, including COVID-19 testing, and ensure compliance with the Health Professions Act and the public health order issued by Dr. Henry.
Regulated healthcare professionals who are interested in gaining DAP accreditation so that they may provide COVID-19 testing services are encouraged to review the following page on CPSBC's website:
For additional questions please contact the Diagnostic Accreditation Program at: [email protected]