Community Memorial Health System is proud to announce that its Clinical Laboratory, located at Community Memorial Hospital (CMH) in Ventura, is the only hospital-based laboratory in Ventura County to receive two distinctions for excellence in safety, automation, and efficiency.
For the seventh consecutive time, the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB) has awarded Community Memorial Health System its accreditation for excellence in transfusion services. This accreditation acknowledges transfusion programs that meet the highest level of quality and safety standards for transfusion patients and blood donors at all times.
“I am incredibly proud of our Clinical Laboratory team for their ongoing dedication to the AABB accreditation process,” said Community Memorial Health System President & CEO Gary Wilde. “From blood banking and transfusion services to COVID-19 testing, our laboratory plays a vital role in the excellent level of care we provide to our community.”
The AABB also recognized Minerva Vasquez, Community Memorial Health System Lab Section Supervisor, for her thought-leadership in the development and implementation of processes and procedures designed to ensure adherence to safety standards. The AABB will be sharing an auditing tool developed by Vasquez as a best-practice model for meeting the benchmarks required for its accreditation.
Community Memorial Health System’s Chemistry Lab Supervisor, Trevor Jackson, was also recognized for his excellence as a laboratory professional. Jackson was selected for Cardinal Health’s Laboratory Excellence List ™ for his exceptional achievements in efficiency and automation. Jackson, who joined the Community Memorial Health System lab team as a phlebotomist in 2000, served as the project lead in the installation and optimization of the DxA 5000 Total Lab Automation System, a cutting-edge lab track that automates the connection between the chemistry and hematology instruments used for sample processing. It provides pre-analytical sample analysis, reduces manual processing steps, and drives consistent sample turnaround times. Jackson and the expert lab team starting working to implement this new technology in August 2020 and, despite the pressures of the pandemic, launched it in June, 2021. Community Memorial Health System is the only hospital-based clinical laboratory with the DxA 5000 in Southern California.
“Working in the healthcare industry can be stressful, especially these last few years, but I have always found the work very rewarding and worth the effort,” said Jackson.
The Community Memorial Health System Clinical Laboratory provides comprehensive inpatient and outpatient testing services to patients at Community Memorial Hospital, Ojai Valley Community Hospital, Midtown Medical Group Clinics, Centers for Family Health Clinics, and a network of other healthcare, home health, and skilled nursing partners throughout western Ventura County.
