The Aga Khan University Hospitals Clinical Laboratory has received the gold standard College of American Pathologists (CAP) accreditation for the third time and remains the only clinical laboratory in Pakistan to receive this prestigious accreditation.
This accreditation is a certification that AKUH Clinical Laboratories follow over 3,500 standards to provide our patients timely and accurate results every time. A team of seven inspectors – practicing professionals qualified through CAP training programme – visited the Aga Khan University Hospital and its Outreach Health Network on a two-day visit from 10 March to 11 March 2022, to audit AKUH laboratory’s quality records, staff qualifications, validation of tests, equipment, facilities, safety programmes and overall management against 3,500+ indicators. Shagufta Hassan, CEO AKU Outreach Health Network, Pakistan said that the Clinical Laboratories of AKU are a national asset and have grown from one laboratory on its Stadium Road campus in Karachi to over 294 phlebotomy centres and 13 stat-laboratories across 126 cities in Pakistan. “AKU is recognised as a leader in its academic programmes and clinical services.”
She continued, “We strive to achieve the highest standards of quality that not only meet but exceed the expectations of their families.” At the debriefing after the audit, the CAP inspectors expressed their satisfaction and commended the efforts of the teams who were involved in maintaining highest quality standards everyday.
“There are no showstoppers in this place. You’re a busy place and you’re a very complex place; it’s probably one of the most complex labs in the world. You have a big checklist with a lot of items and it takes a strong team, with a lot of deep understanding of the different disciplines [to do this work].
You should be very proud of that,” said Dr Aaron Han, Chief Auditor CAP. Suleiman Shahabuddin, President, The Aga Khan University, expressed his gratitude to the team for achieving this milestone for the third time and said, “We have excellent people, who are passionate to deliver highest quality healthcare and have a drive to constantly improve our operations so that our patients and their loved ones are satisfied that they are in good hands.” “We are committed to the delivery of accurate and timely results for our patients by providing highest levels of quality standards and transparency,” said Dr Farooq Ghani, Director CAP accreditation. The Aga Khan University Hospitals and the AKU Outreach Health Network, Pakistan has a robust Patient Welfare and Zakat programmes. In 2021 alone, 950,000 patients received Zakat support work PKR 3.7 billion.
