Starting a NAACLS Accredited Program Outside of the USA
Thank you for your interest in starting a NAACLS Accredited program. As an organization, NAACLS strives to maintain high standards, which we are confident will result in a workforce that will help improve healthcare outcomes worldwide.
Who is NAACLS?
NAACLS is the gold standard for quality assurance in laboratory education. For over 50 years, educators and practitioners in the laboratory science field have volunteered their time and expertise to ensure the NAACLS Standards hold educational programs to a high level of quality while ensuring they also have the flexibility to meet their community needs and unforeseen challenges.
Accreditation vs. Certification vs. Registry
Accreditation
Accreditation is a standards-based, peer-based, quality assurance process of internal review by a program and external review by peer subject matter experts. Programs that meet established criteria and educational standards are awarded “accreditation”, a seal of quality to the public. Accreditation’s primary goals are to ensure and enhance program quality.
Certification
Certification is a process that ensures the credibility and competence of individuals in a profession. Certification agencies conduct practice analyses, which are surveys of practitioners in the field. Practice analysis results determine content and specifications of certification examinations and ultimately inform development of examination questions. After passing a certification examination, an individual is granted a credential which demonstrates proficiency in the field of practice. Certification often requires ongoing professional development to maintain an active certification.
Registry
Registry is utilized by areas with a highly structured qualifications framework. The governments in these regions are highly involved in developing and overseeing these frameworks. Students who complete educational programs in these areas are often listed on a federal registry upon completing their education.
NAACLS will review and evaluate the knowledge available to a prospective student through the standards and processes of accreditation. Conversely, certification is a way to determine an individual’s content expertise through a singular stand-alone exam. A registry demonstrates content knowledge based on a highly regulated national qualifications framework and the cumulative learning examinations administered at the end of the educational experience.
Laboratory/Hospital Accreditation vs. NAACLS Accreditation
Laboratory/Hospital Accreditation
Associations such as the Joint Commission (TJC) and the College of American Pathologists (CAP) accredit hospitals and laboratories. The main difference is that the Joint Commission, CAP, and other hospital or laboratory accreditors focus on technical performance.
NAACLS Accreditation
NAACLS is concerned only with laboratory educational programs and not evaluating the overall performance of hospitals and laboratories. If you have reviewed any of NAACLS’ core documents, you may have noticed references to “hospital-based” programs. Even in this setting, NAACLS Accreditation is still concentrated on the education housed at a hospital or laboratory. With similar terminology, it can be a bit confusing; please get in touch with NAACLS Staff if you have any questions.
NAACLS International Accreditation Policy
NAACLS International Accreditation Policy
The NAACLS Board of Directors voted to open the accreditation process to laboratory programs located outside the United States of America. Such programs are invited to have the chief executive officer submit a letter of intent to seek NAACLS accreditation. All materials sent to NAACLS regarding accreditation must be submitted in English.
The steps of the accreditation process for international programs are identical to the steps for USA programs and are found in the Guide to Accreditation. These include an application for accreditation, attainment of Serious Applicant Status, submission of a self-study document, and an on-site evaluation.
The program is expected to meet the Standards as defined by NAACLS. The sponsoring academic institution must either be authorized under applicable law to provide post-secondary education or accredited by a regional or national accrediting agency for higher education.
The program is expected to pay the application fee, all costs associated with the on-site visit (including business class airfare), and annual accreditation fees.
The NAACLS Review Process
As mentioned, NAACLS reviews United States of America and International programs using the same process with the same standards. All programs that successfully complete the accreditation process are considered NAACLS Accredited Programs – no qualifiers are necessary.
NAACLS content experts are your peers. Equipped with expertise in the NAACLS Standards, our reviewers are educators from your program discipline. They’ve been in your shoes and want you to succeed. They will let you know if there is any confusion or concerns so you may clarify them later in the process. There are four parts to the NAACLS accreditation review.
You can begin this process at any time. You’ll want to make sure that you have first gained institution approval. After that, contact NAACLS Staff so we can go into more detail and answer your questions. Also, since the international and domestic accreditation processes are the same, we recommend you look at this page for more information. Visit the Start a Program page to learn more.
Welcome to the NAACLS Community!