NABL accreditation lab is an essential step that gives lab centers authorized recognition of competent CABs and helps customers & providers to find a standardized source for testing and diagnostic services. However, to obtain accreditation you must prepare Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), keep up with documentation & paperwork, have a continuous check on equipment, systems, and processes, train staff and conduct internal and external audits.
With so much to do in hand, let’s learn what are the basic challenges that labs often undergo for NABL lab accreditation procedure and what can come as a solution to take care of all of these.
Major Challenges of NABL Accredited Laboratory/ISO Accreditation
Documentation and Paperwork are Complex and Tedious
NABL & ISO accreditation requires a line of paperwork that must be ready for verification and validation process from audit managers to approve. These include the organization’s legal documents, equipment calibration and maintenance, personnel documents, and so on. On every audit of NABL-accredited labs, submission, and documentation become extremely complex and tedious to handle; since these documents must be updated & maintained often. So, the bigger the lab, the bigger the hassle to maintain them each time. The process can go at stake if at you lose any of the paperwork. On the whole, lab authorities have to invest a higher effort and time in it.
Implementing and Processing SOPs requires Trained Experts & Quality Managers
To adhere to National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories or International Organization for Standardization guidelines labs need to design the SOPs, implement and process them on their own. They have to make sure that every department follows these SOPs as well. There is neither a tool as such to keep a check on them nor the ownership of each SOPs is known to ensure timely checks. This leads to sequential delays in the next steps affecting the entire NABL management process. On the other hand, creating templates also takes a lot of effort followed by tracking; often either pending, incomplete or updating. In that case, hiring trained experts & quality managers is the only choice that requires labs to spend additional time, resources and cost.
Requires Continual Trainings of Staff for Improving Compliance
Staff training is tough as it demands expertise in specialized fields and requires competence. The training consists of several activities that contribute towards improving the lab’s compliance with the benefits of NABL accreditation and ISO standards. To comply with it, diagnostic centers hire specialized training experts to train staff at every level to maintain quality and compliance. However, hiring these trainers means spending more money additionally every month.
How the NABL Audit Tool Can Help?
While a NABL consultant is necessary for end-to-end help with NABL audit preparation and quality checks, an audit tool can give you the independence to handle everything effortlessly and hassle-free.
Here are some benefits of NABL accreditation lab using an audit tool –
Phase-wise Roadmap for Accreditation
The tool allows you to view the audit roadmap to ease the NABL lab accreditation procedure and its implementation without keeping any step pending, incomplete or erroneous. Managing the entire process in phases helps you to keep track of things well. These phases are namely –
- Pre-assessment Phase involving baseline assessment for the existing processes.
- Process Adherence and SOPs involves document and implement SOPs for all management and technical requirements
- Quality Control Process involves formulate and maintain a daily log of internal quality indicators
- Internal Audits to ensure process compliance
- Review & Monitoring to setup review cycles, evaluate optimisation areas for all processes
- NABL audit preparation involves management review, external review, and applying for NABL certification.
Track Progress for Each Clause & Phase
To get your NABL-accredited labs, having a checklist of activities can assist you in validating, verifying, and tracking the progress of every step easily. An audit tool can provide you with an automated checklist for each phase and clause to assess the overall progress of every task.
Readymade Templates & SOPs for NABL Accreditation Process
With ready-made templates and SOPs available the tool allows you to store, edit and update any essential information and documents on this platform. Information can be attached as documents, images, videos, or any other form.
Planner for Continuous Monitoring
With automated steps, you have control over specific tasks which helps in case of surprise visits or random checks from audit managers. The tool helps you to schedule and plan activities in a personalized order and run checks for continual monitoring, improvement, and compliance maintenance. You also get to evaluate the regular progress of scheduled activities which might help you to conform with ISO norms (for NABL certification or NABL lab accreditation procedure) and keep the concerned person notified whenever needed.
CrelioHealth is introducing an Audit Tool that will take care of all the challenges you face to get ready for NABL accreditation process. The tool is designed to address the above-mentioned challenges empowering Laboratories to confidently go for accreditation and maintain accreditation over time.
Connect with an expert on the meeting link below to know more.
