CALA Plans for Remote Assessments

CALA has been in communication with its accredited laboratory customers regarding the expedition of plans for remote assessments.  Please see the recently documented CALA Policy on Remote Assessments available on the CALA web site.  Despite possible deadline extensions by ILAC for laboratories to transition to the revised ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard, CALA will begin the process of remote assessments with a plan to assess the management system requirements and ‘new’ requirements in ISO/IEC 17025:2017 (e.g., statements of conformity and decision rules) using a combination of document review and remote assessment.  The plan is to do this earlier in the year, and an on-site assessment of the appendices will be performed later in the year when public health officials have deemed it safe.    All impacted laboratories would have been sent email communications earlier this month.  As well, some low-risk assessment activities (e.g., abbreviated assessments) will be considered for a remote assessment on a case-by-case basis.  If you have any questions or believe that you may be impacted but not yet heard from CALA, feel free to contact your Accreditation Officer or send an email to communications@cala.ca.

If you are interested in learning more about the possible deadline extension being recommended by ILAC, you can find that article here.