HCMC’s EMG lab achieves national accreditation
HCMC’s EMG lab received Laboratory Accreditation status from the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM). Ezgi Tiryaki, MD, certified by the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine (ABEM), is the laboratory’s medical director.
“I am excited to receive AANEM Laboratory Accreditation status,” explains Dr. Tiryaki. “This signifies our commitment to the best quality of care and outstanding service to our patients and referring providers. We owe this achievement to the initiative and hard work of our EMG laboratory coordinator Gordian Yap and the strong support of our HCMC administrators, and we’re proud to be the first laboratory to be accredited with exemplary status in the state of Minnesota.”
HCMC’s laboratory is a main teaching site for an EMG fellowship through the University of Minnesota and the EMG technician program through the Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, neurosurgery, medicine and podiatry residents as well as medical students rotate through the laboratory to learn about the procedure and its indications.
“Being accredited will allow us to teach all these learners about the process of quality improvement and system-based practice,” says Dr. Tiryaki.
The AANEM established laboratory accreditation criteria for electrodiagnostic (EDX) laboratories to ensure patients receive quality medical care in a safe environment. Laboratory accreditation provides patients, referral sources, and payers with a credible measure to differentiate the laboratory’s quality of care. The accreditation standards evaluate the diagnostic services and clinical operations essential to providing quality patient care, which include:
- Clinical staff qualifications and continuing education
- Physical facilities
- EDX equipment
- Protocols for performing EDX studies
- Patient reports
- Policies for ensuring the health and safety of every patient
Exemplary Status is the highest level of accreditation an EDX laboratory can achieve under the AANEM Accreditation Program. To be awarded Accreditation with Exemplary Status, physicians performing studies in the laboratory must:
- Have completed a neurology or physical medicine and rehabilitation residency program; and
- Have completed a minimum of three months of training in EDX medicine as part of a residency or fellowship program; and
- Be certified by the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine (ABEM), or by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) in clinical neurophysiology, or by the ABPN/American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in neuromuscular disease.
AANEM is a nonprofit membership association dedicated to the advancement of neuromuscular, musculoskeletal, and electrodiagnostic medicine. For more information about AANEM, or to learn more about laboratory accreditation, visit www.aanem.org.
