APHL 2018 Annual Meeting Poster Abstracts
Laboratory Response Network — Chemical (LRN-C) Level 3
Resource Handbook
(complete abstract in Environmental Health, p. 50)
Increasing Preparedness Through Laboratory Full-Scale
Exercises
G. Gardenier and L. Mapp, US Environmental Protection Agency,
Washington, DC
Presenter: George Gardenier, US Environmental Protection
Agency, Washington, DC, Phone: 202.272.0167, Email:
[email protected]
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
APHL.org
Evaluating Progress Achieved Through a Two-Year Quality
Assurance Laboratory Mentor Program
S. Chester 1 , P. Kennedy 2 , M. Warren 1 , E. Reisdorf 3 , N. Tavakoli 4 ,
R. Alexander, J. Parker 5 , S. Bino, A. Moen 2 ; 1 Association of Public
Health Laboratories, Silver Spring, MD, 2 Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, 3 Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene,
Madison, WI, 4 Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of
Health, Albany, NY, 5 Alaska State Virology Laboratory, Fairbanks, AK
Objective: From May 2015 to June 2017, the Association of Public
Health Laboratories (APHL) and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) in collaboration with the World Health Organization
Regional Office for Europe (WHO Euro) and the Southeast European
Center for Surveillance and Control of Infectious Diseases (SECID)
conducted an influenza laboratory quality assurance mentorship
program. The primary goal was to help laboratories systematically
implement a quality monitoring system and enable laboratories to
achieve WHO National Influenza Center (NIC) recognition. Initially
supported for 1 year, the program was extended to a second to
help move remaining action items to completion and increase the
number of laboratories ready for NIC assessments. This poster
provides updated data from the end of Year 2 (Y2).
Study Design: Four mentors from US public health laboratories were
paired with 6 laboratories from 5 countries. Mentors and countries
worked in partnership to address quality management weaknesses,
NIC requirements and recommendations from previous laboratory
assessments. In Y2, required communications were decreased from
once per month to once per quarter. Mentors shared templates
and example documents, reviewed draft documents and provided
general advice and reminders. Results of progress achieved were
compiled at the end of Year 1 (Y1) and previously reported. Each
laboratory created a Y2 action plan with priority items to complete
by the program conclusion.
Results: During Y1, mentees identified 159 action items compared
to 121 identified for Y2. At the conclusion of Y2, the laboratories
marked a total of 85.8% of action items as being in-progress or
completed compared with an 83.0% completion rate for these same
groups in Y1. Montenegro achieved NIC recognition in 2017 and two
additional laboratories are on track for NIC assessments in 2018.
The poster will evaluate the entire two year program and compare
Y1 and Y2 progress.
Conclusion: Similar to the first year of the program, we saw
progression of many of the planned activities. The accountability
offered by regular interaction and the interpersonal relationships
built in the first year of the program were key to progress achieved
in the second year. The southeastern European mentor program
served as a proof of concept for regional mentor programs and led
to the CDC and APHL initiating a second iteration of the program in
Africa in summer 2017.
Presenter: Stephanie Chester, Association of Public Health
Laboratories, Silver Spring, MD, Phone: 240.485.2740,
Email: [email protected]
Summer 2018 LAB MATTERS
83
Drinking water and wastewater systems face a number of
challenges when confronting a contamination incident. Whether
the contamination happened because of a natural disaster or
due to an accidental or intentional release, several key decisions
need to be made. These include how best to access the analytical
laboratory support that will be necessa ry to respond to the incident
and return the water system to service. The decisions made and
actions taken during the response, remediation and recovery
processes will depend on the circumstances of each incident.
Therefore, responders and water utility personnel can benefit from
tools that help utilities practice and update their response plans and
decontamination strategies. During a water contamination incident,
laboratories and utilities will need to reach out to the appropriate
analytical partners to help confirm the identity of the contaminant,
characterize the extent of contamination and verify that cleanup
efforts have been successful. The Water Laboratory Alliance (WLA)
provides a nationwide network of analytical laboratories that
are available to provide water and wastewater utilities with the
analytical capabilities and capacity to assist with the response
to a contamination incident. Practicing the coordination between
the utility and laboratory communities in advance of an incident
is important for ensuring an efficient and appropriate response
during an emergency. The Water Laboratory Alliance program in
EPA’s Water Security Division has developed tools and resources to
aid the water sector in preparing for and responding to chemical,
biological or radiochemical contamination incidents. One such
resource is the Analytical Preparedness Full-Scale Exercise (AP-
FSE) Toolkit. This toolkit provides water utilities with the necessary
information to plan and conduct a laboratory full-scale exercise. The
toolkit outlines a step-by step process for how to design, initiate and
implement an exercise involving coordination between the water
utility and laboratory sectors. The toolkit includes a chemical and
a biological scenario, as well as relevant templates and forms for
developing the necessary exercise documentation and training and
for collecting evaluations and feedback to assist the implementation
of an exercise improvement program. The toolkit has been piloted
with five utilities and is scheduled to be released in early 2018.
Another useful resource that the Water Laboratory Alliance Team
has developed is an interactive resource for Accessing Laboratory
Support. This interactive training resource will provide users with
information on how to receive analytical support when it is needed.
The resource guides users through the available access routes
beginning at the local level and progressing, based on the scale
of the need, to the state and federal levels. Accessing Laboratory
Support was published in July 2017.
Quality Systems