[Accreditation of the screening for the rectal carriage of vanA and/or vanB Vancomycin-resistant enterococci by an accredited laboratory under the standard NF EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005]

Abstract

The quality of the screening of vanA and/or vanB Vancomycin-resistant enterococcal (VRE) carriage by patients transferred from foreign countries plays a role in the management of risks linked to extensively drug resistant organisms (XDRO). Accreditation of the screening according to the NF EN ISO 15189 and NF EN ISO/IEC 17025 standards contributes to satisfy the level of quality. Our laboratory was already accredited according to the NF EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard. We used its quality management system and the type B widened flexible scope to identify the required criteria based on microbiology and infection control standards and those of Afnor and Cofrac, and to validate the screening procedure. Accreditation was obtained for use of the Type B scope, for culture-based detection and identification (codes BA1 and BA5), for determination of the minimal inhibitory concentrations of glycopeptides (code BA6), and for the detection of resistance genes to glycopeptides by polymerase chain reaction (code BA8). The maturity of our quality management system contributed to validate the screening procedures following the required criteria of the NF EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard.

Keywords: VRE; accreditation; quality; screening; standard NF EN ISO/IEC 17025.