Environmental Services at the Saskatchewan Disease Control Laboratory has established a strict quality control and quality assurance (QA/QC) program to ensure the testing results are accurate.
- Accreditation by Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation (CALA)
- CALA Proficiency Tests for bacteriological, physical and chemistry parameters
- UBC Laboratory Quality Management Program - Clinical Microbiology Proficiency Testing (CMPT)
- Annual internal audit
- Good laboratory practices
- Environmental regulations and guidelines
- Quality Control / Quality Assurance
Accreditation and Proficiency Testing by CALA
Water Lab (Environmental Services) at the Saskatchewan Disease Control Laboratory is accredited by the Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation (CALA) for environmental tests in the scope of accreditation. The accreditation program consists of on-site assessment (biannually) and proficiency testing (twice a year). The program ensures that laboratory facilities, procedures, and methods conform to ISO 17025, an internationally recognized standard.
Laboratory Quality Management CMPT
The Water Lab participates in UBC Clinical Microbiological Proficiency Test (CMPT). This proficiency test program provides blind samples to our lab several times a year to assess proficiency.
Internal Audit by local experts
Inviting local experts from other labs to assess our lab QA/QC programs at least once annually. Internal audit is conducted following CAN-P-1510 (latest version) or comparable checklist.
Good Laboratory Practices
Analyses of control samples, blanks, duplicates, internal standards, and spike recovery measurement are among those used to ensure accuracy of the testing results. When a result is questionable, we will take corrective action and then re-test the sample. We follow occupational health and safety, environmental regulations and guidelines.
Quality Control/Quality Assurance
The QC/QA officer for the Environmental Services lab manages all aspects of the quality control program. This includes reviews of quality control data, method validation, and laboratory audits and review.
