The Hospitals of Providence is excited to announce that two of its small-format acute care facilities, in partnership with Emerus, have earned COLA’s highest honor for laboratory safety and excellence.

The honor means the Montwood Emergency Department and The Hospitals of Providence Horizon City Campus in El Paso, Texas, have met all the criteria for Laboratory Accreditation by COLA Inc., a leading national laboratory accreditor. COLA’s program and standards enable clinical laboratories and staff to meet United States Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA) and other regulatory requirements.

The facilities received this distinction for their teams’ “focus on compliance to lab policies and the commitment to do the right thing for our patients,” said Vanessa Smith, Chief Operating Officer for Emerus.

Through a mentoring approach using education to improve quality and patient safety, accreditation is given to laboratories that apply the highest standards of quality in day-to-day operations, demonstrate continued accuracy in the performance of proficiency testing, and pass a rigorous on-site laboratory survey.

In addition, “award recipients must have demonstrated successful proficiency testing for the prior three testing events and have no substantiated complaints against the laboratory,” Smith said.

Through its joint venture with Emerus, The Hospitals of Providence opened the Horizon City Campus in 2017 and the Montwood Emergency Department in 2019.