The American Industrial Hygiene Association has reorganized its legacy Laboratory Quality Assurance Programs (LQAP) into three separate limited liability companies (LLCs). Effective immediately, AIHA's laboratory activities, once housed under LQAP, will be operated by:
- AIHA Laboratory Accreditation Programs LLC
- AIHA Registry Programs LLC
- AIHA Proficiency Analytical Testing Programs LLC
The LLCs each have been organized as separate legal entities with their own governance, committees, policies, budgets, technical volunteers and strategic advisors. In forming the LLCs, AIHA created the flexibility for each laboratory program to be more efficiently managed and operated and has met the impartiality requirements included in international standards under which the programs operate.
"We look forward to continued success as we operate AIHA laboratory programs more efficiently under this new business model," said AIHA President Lindsay E. Booher, CIH, CSP.
Later in the year, laboratories with AIHA accreditation will receive new licensing agreements to sign so they can receive new accreditation logos from the AIHA Laboratory Accreditation Programs LLC. Information about individual AIHA-accredited labs can be found at http://www.aihaaccreditedlabs.org, whereas information on the Registry and Proficiency Analytical Testing (PAT) Programs will be maintained separately on the Web sites listed above.
"Over the coming months, we will be executing a communications plan to improve the knowledge of and comfort with the LLC concept," said Cheryl O. Morton, AIHA's director of Affiliate Laboratory Programs.