A pilot experiment of joint assessments by accreditation and certificationbodies in clinical laboratories

When the quality system of the health care organization is certified and th e laboratory accredited, two different types of assessments are also perfor med. To reduce the extra work caused by these differ ent assessments the Fi nnish Accreditation Service FINAS and SFS-Certification have made a pilot e xperiment in combining the assessments, Joint assessments have been a posit ive experience to the laboratory as well as to the assessing bodies, and we find this operating model worth developing.