Proposed Revisions to the ASHI Standards
The Quality Assurance and Standards Committee (QAS) has been working on updates to the ASHI Standards. We propose three new standards suggested by the UNOS/OPTN molecular typing of deceased donor's mandate which became effective June 1, 2011. These proposed changes to the Standards have been submitted to the ASHI Board and the Accreditation Review Board (ARB) for review and comment. Now we seek your comments and suggestions.
There is no redline version since the proposed 2011 Standards are new additions to the sections on testing deceased donors for renal/pancreas organ transplantation and testing deceased donors for non-renal organ/tissue transplantation. There are currently no existing standards that are being proposed for changes. Please carefully consider these proposed changes to the current standards and send your comments to Leslie Clark at ASHI Headquarters () no later than September 9, 2011. QAS will respond to all comments received during the public comment period. Implementation of revisions to the standards will be on January 1, 2012 following CMS review.
Please remember that the QAS Committee has certain constraints when responding to your comments. There are two that are noteworthy. First, the proposed standards may not be made more stringent based upon membership comments without a subsequent round of public comment; therefore, such comments will be deferred until the next round of revisions unless the comments are of extraordinary importance. Second, all ASHI Standards must be at least as stringent as the CMS (CLIA) regulations; therefore, proposals that advocate lesser stringency cannot be considered. QAS has worked together to get the proposal to this point, now we need your input. All comments received will be addressed by QAS and our responses will be posted on the ASHI website later this year. We are most appreciative of your participation in the continuous improvement process for the ASHI Standards. Thank you in advance for your time.
Sincerely,
Don Constantino, MS, CHS, QAS Co-Chair
Cynthia Taves, Ph.D., D(ABHI), QAS Co-Chair
If you have newsworthy information to add to the ASHI Web site, please contact kmiranda@ahint.com for consideration.