Lab Matters Summer 2025 | Page 46

QUALITY SYSTEMS AND ANALYTICS

By Tina Su, MPH, program manager, Quality Systems and Analytics

Since 2007, the APHL Laboratory System Improvement Program( L-SIP) has advanced the efficacy of state and local public health laboratory systems through a guided process of performance evaluation, system improvements, and periodic evaluation and reassessment. The program gives APHL member public health laboratories an opportunity to convene a one-day, systemwide assessment with local, state and federal public health partners to identify system strengths, opportunities for improvement, and potential future quality improvement activities that address the gaps identified during the assessment day.

The planning process to ensure a successful assessment day is lengthy and comprised of many parts, starting with identifying the assessment date / time. Developing the system partner invitation list, managing RSVPs, coordinating with the assessment venue, ordering catering, event logistics, and writing the assessment summary report are also critical steps to an effective assessment. The responsibility for all these details might be challenging for one laboratory staff member, given their existing daily tasks. But having a group of public health laboratory staff members split these tasks might be equally demanding because of the required coordination. The Public Health Laboratory Fellowship Program: an APHL-CDC Initiative— specifically the Quality Management track— offers a solution by placing a fellow who is interested in quality improvement and public health initiatives in the laboratory.

It gives the fellow the opportunity to plan, coordinate and execute the L-SIP assessment as one of their major projects. This strategy has allowed public health laboratories in Georgia, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oregon a chance to make their assessments possible.

Exposure to Public Health Laboratory Systems

Ryli Hockensmith, MPH

One of the major components of the L-SIP planning process is identifying partners to invite to the event. This activity requires knowledge about the public health laboratory system that a new fellow might not be aware of but encourages them to collaborate with other laboratory staff to brainstorm and develop their list. Consulting with partners outside the laboratory broadens the fellow’ s understanding of what entities are involved in the system and how they work together.

Kentucky Department for Public Health Division of Laboratory Services

Existing Network of Fellows

An added benefit for public health laboratories using a fellow to coordinate the L-SIP assessment is that there is a small cohort of APHL fellows who have served in this role already at other public health laboratories. The“ new” fellow can reach out to this group for advice and support, creating an opportunity to build professional connections within the APHL fellow network as well as sharing their knowledge and experiences.

This L-SIP assessment planning process allows fellows to work collaboratively with APHL staff, APHL members, fellow laboratory staff and their system partners and sharpen skills such as event coordination and written communication. This unique, win-win opportunity allows fellows to jump start their careers in public health.

For more information about L-SIP, contact Tina Su, MPH, Quality Systems and Analytics. g

Selamawit Demile

Arizona Department of Health Services State Public Health Laboratory