Accreditation is a formal recognition earned by a testing, calibration, or inspection organization that has proven to comply with globally accepted, international standards of quality and competence. Accreditation can sometimes be required by government or industry regulators for certain kinds of organizations to operate, but many organizations seek accreditation regardless of whether it is required by regulators. These organizations choose to be accredited because they understand that a globally accepted accreditation can be invaluable to their business, helping them to earn trust from customers and the public, stand out from their competition, effectively manage risk, and offer customers the highest quality products and services possible.
June 9, 2025, marks World Accreditation Day (WAD), an annual celebration to recognize the crucial role accreditation plays in our daily lives—and this year’s theme is Empowering Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
SMEs face a unique set of economic challenges, including accessing a variety of markets, competition from larger corporations, and financial limitations. However, accreditation serves as a pillar of support to SMEs as they innovate, evolve, and grow. For example, accreditation ensures access to the global marketplace and compliance with the highest international standards.
In a joint statement from the International Accreditation Forum and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, they state “WAD focuses on how accreditation, supported by global mutual recognition arrangements established by ILAC and IAF, helps SMEs to compete with larger, more established businesses. It demonstrates that they meet the requirements of regulators to open up new market opportunities, signifies credibility, and instils confidence with potential customers.”
The Case for Accreditation
Western Slope Laboratory, located in Troy, Michigan, is a forensic and clinical testing laboratory that offers toxicology analytical testing services to other toxicology testing laboratories and research and development laboratories in the health, life and/or environmental science industries.
They design and produce effective and high-quality Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs) as a specialized reference laboratory, and their current efforts are centered on the validation into existing LDTs of various point of care saliva collection and test devices.
According to their website, that “while [the organization is] especially known for its saliva testing capabilities, Western Slope Laboratory’s offerings include quantitative analysis of urine and saliva for large numbers of drugs of abuse, prescription drugs, heavy metals, synthetic cannabinoids, synthetic cathinones, and piperazines.”
Western Slope has earned many certificates and accreditations to prove the quality of their test results and set themselves apart from the competition in a saturated industry. Their accreditations and certifications include a CLIA certification, ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, ISO 15189 accreditation, DEA certificate, and many state recognitions.
Of these recognitions, Western Slope holds two ISO accreditations from A2LA: ISO/IEC 17025 for forensic testing and ISO 15189 for clinical testing. These two ISO standards require the laboratory to assess many aspects of their test methods and operations, including their quality management system, measurement uncertainty, traceability, risk management, and more, exceeding the requirements of the College of American Pathologists’ (CAP) Forensic Drug Testing accreditation program.
ISO standards are published by the International Organization for Standardization, an independent, non-governmental, international organization that gathers experts from every sector to set high-quality benchmarks they can all agree on. Because ISO is an international organization, these standards are recognized and accepted in every economic marketplace around the globe and remove roadblocks for global trade.
Global accreditation empowers organizations to continually improve and gives them access to a global customer base. It also helps them to accurately assess and mitigate risk, which can serve as future cost savings. A robust quality system enhances staff competency, leading to a reduction in testing errors or repeat testing, saving both valuable time and budget.
“One of our primary efforts to stay relevant in a laboratory market controlled by large laboratories is to attain quality designations, because these designations give us an irrefutable claim to quality testing” said Thomas McCormick, President and CEO of Western Slope Laboratory. “ISO accreditation allows us to compete at a higher level in the industry, by exceeding traditional CAP accreditations, specifically CAP Forensic Drug Testing accreditation. The requirements of ISO17025 Forensic accreditation are far more stringent than CAP’s program.”
Western Slope is currently the only A2LA conformity assessment body (CAB) accredited to both ISO/IEC 17025 for forensic testing and ISO 15189 for clinical testing. In 2013, they earned ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, and then in 2015, they earned ISO 15189 accreditation, making them the first CAB in the United States to be accredited to both standards. The management sections of these two ISO standards are almost entirely comparable, which eases the burden of meeting the requirements of both standards.
“Our accreditation gives us a competitive advantage over other labs by helping us improve the quality of our results and the efficiency of our processes,” said Jacob Malacos, Quality Manager of Western Slope Laboratory. “A2LA’s assessors always have the best interest of the lab in mind, which gives us the opportunity to continually improve.”
Learn how an ISO accreditation can empower your small or medium testing, calibration, or inspection organization. Visit A2LA.org or contact us at info@A2LA.org.