Compliance with the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 for hemoglobin screening--California, 1995.

ABSTRACT

The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) established standards for improving the quality of clinical laboratory testing in the United States. One intent of CLIA was the regulation of smaller, provider-based laboratories, such as those operated by health-care providers in the Child Health and Disability Prevention (CHDP) program. In 1995, in conjunction with an assessment of county-specific variations in prevalence rates of anemia, the California Department of Health Services conducted a mail survey of CHDP providers to assess compliance with CLIA regulations for hemoglobin screening. This report summarizes the results of that survey, which indicate that, in California, many CHDP providers do not comply with CLIA-mandated quality-assurance practices for hemoglobin screening in their clinical laboratories.