CLPEX Chat Board

Are all ISO accredited labs taking processing proficiency tests? We are in an inspection and they are saying we need to. However, we previously had training that told us if we were proficiency tested in comparisons then it wasn't necessary.

Thanks

Aaron

Hi Aaron,

I am in an ISO accredited Lab and we have been taking both comparison and processing proficiency tests now for a few years. My Lab decided to save costs and require only one proficiency test a year per employee, so they have been alternating it so that we get a processing proficiency one year and the comparison one the next. I still experience all CTS proficiency tests each year though, as I do blind tech reviews on my co-workers tests.

Chris

Coming from an ISO 17020 and 17025 ANAB-accredited lab, it all depends on what you have on your scope of accreditation. We have to do comparisons yearly and processing every accreditation cycle. We have opted to do it every other year. We also have to do database searching; again, every cycle. Like processing, we have opted to do every other year. Since there are only two of us, we (lab) are actually doing (2) comparison PTs yearly and processing and database yearly (one person does it on even years and the other does it on odd years).

There are no external PTs for database searching so we create an internal one and use that. It had to get approved by ANAB first (they have a document that needs to be filled out prior to giving the PT). It was a relatively easy form to fill out.

Is all of this overkill? Maybe. But, we can testify that we are proficiency tested yearly and list out the disciplines (or sub-disciplines).

If you are having trouble deciding what to include on your scope, you are not alone. Look up latent labs on ANAB's website and almost all of them have different scopes for essentially the same thing. IT was confusing for us at first but we just decided that this is what we did so this is how we were going to do it on our scope.

PM me or respond here if you have any other questions.

Thanks for your responses. The way the assessor explained it was that we are required to take a pt every year but each scope only had to be once during the cycle. So, theoretically, if you had 5 scopes you could do 1 of each per cycle. I think we will just take one year and do processing and do comparisons the other years until they make it mandatory to pt for AFIS which they said may be a little while due to the logistics.

I just saw that RS&A is now offering a processing PT.

http://www.ronsmithandassociates.com/pr ... ssing.html