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CAP Made Competency Assessment a Tiny Bit Less… Confusing (Yes, really!)

  

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If you’ve ever stared at the CAP personnel requirements wondering “Wait… who’s actually allowed to do competency assessments?” — you’re not alone. It’s a common headache in the world of lab compliance.  But here’s the good news: CAP released an updated requirements checklist in December 2024. Some of the updates focus on who qualifies for key roles in the lab—and more importantly, who can assess competency for moderate- and high-complexity testing. Here are the two changes that could make life a little easier in your lab:
 

General Supervisors Can Now Assess Both Testing Levels

Under the old rule, general supervisors could assess personnel doing high-complexity testing but not those performing moderate-complexity testing. Strange, right? Especially since the qualifications for moderate-complexity oversight were more stringent. CAP has now made changes for that mismatch. Thanks to the update for GEN.53600, general supervisors in labs can now perform both moderate- and high-complexity testing assessments for staff.
 

Associate’s Degree Holders, You’ve Got a New Path Forward

Under the updated GEN.53625, individuals with an associate’s degree in lab sciences are now eligible to be technical consultants if they have four or more years of experience or training in nonwaived testing. Before this, associate’s degree professionals were left out of this role entirely. Now, more experienced team members can step into supervisory responsibilities, including assessing competency for moderate-complexity testing. This means more opportunity, more flexibility, and more people to assess lab competency.
 
CAP recognizes that determining who is qualified to assess various levels of competency can be challenging—a headache, really. Because not every detail can be included in checklists, CAP has created a reference form to use when determining who can perform competency assessments. CAP highly recommends using this form as a tool to guide you.
 
So, here’s to progress, a little more clarity, and hopefully fewer regulatory headaches.
 
For the full article with additional information
Written by Nicole Leon, BS, HTL(ASCP)


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