If you are paying for laboratory services, you want to be assured that the results are accurate and are coming from a certified institution; this is crucially important when it comes to accessing quality healthcare.
For years, residents of the East Berbice-Corentyne Region travelled to Georgetown to access quality medical tests from a laboratory certified by the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS). This was so until the Anamyah Memorial Hospital made a bold step to get its laboratory certified to the National Standard GYS 170:2009 “General requirements for the operations of a laboratory.”
The Anamyah Memorial Hospital Laboratory first approached the GNBS in 2014, indicating an interest in pursuing certification. After formulating their manuals required by the GYS 170 and implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), certification was first granted to the laboratory in 2019.
“The whole gist of having an institution is to ensure not only [that] you provide a service but to ensure that you provide a standard of care,” Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital Ian Anamyah said.
He added, “People coming to the institution would want to know, if what they paying for has any standard, if it has any caliber; is it doing the right tests; and are the tests accurate? [But] now having certification puts patients’ minds at ease.”
The GNBS Laboratory Certification is offered for a period of two years after which, if the laboratory continues to uphold the requirements of the standard, it is recertified. In fact, the Anamyah Memorial Hospital Laboratory was recertified in August, 2021.
The CEO is encouraging more laboratories in Region Six to pursue certification. He pointed out that the facility encountered some difficulties in its bid for recertification since there was no certified medical laboratory in the region to do collate (inter-comparison) testing or double-check its results for accuracy.
“As it is now, we had to send samples to Georgetown because there is no one in Berbice that could’ve done that,” he said.
Therefore, “we would encourage anybody to get certified because there are labs that are somewhat established but need to embark on that path to get certified and maintain a standard,” he added.
Dr. Ryan Anamyah who is the Medical Director at the hospital noted that having good practices in place alone cannot guarantee consistent accuracy and quality results.
“Having the GYS 170 standards in place would have given us an opportunity to actually have our lab consistently reproducing results on a day-to-day basis. Prior to 2014, there were no checks and balances employed,” he said, lauding the GNBS Certification Programme.
The Medical Director noted that with the help of the Bureau, the facility is able to access proficiency testing of its laboratory equipment, which is recommended in the national standard.
From 2019 to date, the hospital has also seen a noteworthy increase in clients with more companies recommending the hospital to perform medical tests for their staff.
“It has improved our workload tremendously but in a good way,” Dr. Anamyah noted.
Finally, Dr. Anamyah revealed that his hospital is looking to pursue accreditation to the ISO 15189 Standard to gain international recognition.
Citizens are encouraged to use certified laboratories to conduct tests as an independent body –GNBS— monitors them; and therefore they provide accurate and reliable results. Other benefits of using the services of a certified laboratory include value for money, the experience of a clear and transparent process; reduce risk of retesting or retaking of samples, and the assurance that employees are trained and competent to conduct tests. There are 20 certified laboratories countrywide.
