Accreditation and Certification

Quality Management System

The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (DPLM) has a Quality Management System (QMS) to ensure that testing, operations and services provided by the laboratories meet and comply with applicable/relevant regulations and customers' expectations. The QMS safeguards the high standards of care KKH aims to provide patients by offering quality laboratory service that is accurate, reliable and holistic for women and children.

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All laboratory sections in DPLM participate in external quality assurance (EQA) proficiency testing, and have established quality control programmes that monitor ongoing test performance. Laboratory sections also participate in regular quality and safety communication sessions, periodical review of section-specific policies and standard operating procedures, ongoing personnel training and competency assessments, and monthly operation meetings that include review of feedback given by customers. Feedback by customers are valuable inputs that enable the department to constantly improve.

Accreditations & Certifications

DPLM is licensed by Ministry of Health, Singapore under the Section 11(1)(a) of the Healthcare Services Act 2020 (HCSA). The authorised Specified Services as part of its Clinical Laboratory Service license are as listed:

1. Anatomic pathology
2. Chemical pathology
   • Glycated Haemoglobin
3. Cytogenetics
4. Cytology
5. Haematology
   • Malaria parasite testing
6. Immunology
   • Human immunodeficiency virus screening
7. Medical Microbiology
   • Acid-fast bacilli smear testing
   • Molecular SARS-CoVI-2 testing for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
8. Molecular pathology
9. Transfusion medicine

Laboratories in DPLM are accredited or certified by the following locally and internationally recognized accreditation or certification programmes to meet the quality standards and competency requirements for medical laboratories.

Table 1: List of Accreditation and Certification Programmes in KKH

DPLM is committed to providing quality clinical laboratory service for women and children by engaging in locally and internationally recognized EQA programmes. EQA testings are conducted all year round with specified frequencies depending on the different laboratory sections. Results are monitored at specified frequencies.

The external quality programmes that are used for proficiency testing are listed in Table 2 below.

Table 2: List of Proficiency Testing Specific to Different Laboratory Sections within DPLM.

Abbreviations