Certification of Approved Laboratories Performing Implied Consent Alcohol Testing

PDF Version of DQA 10-002  (PDF, 52 KB)

Certification of Approved Laboratories Performing Implied Consent Alcohol Testing

The Division of Quality Assurance (DQA), within the Department of Health Services (DHS), is responsible for certifying approved laboratories performing implied consent alcohol testing under Wisconsin Statute 343.305(6)(a). This memo is to update you on information relating to this program.

By statute, an approved laboratory must:

• Employ an alcohol analysis method approved by the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH);
• Participate satisfactorily in a monitoring program administered by DHS.

WSLH Legal Alcohol Proficiency Testing (PT) Program provides this monitoring service under a memorandum of agreement with DHS. Graded PT summaries from WSLH are sent to DQA.

Acceptable laboratory performance for a single PT event is a grade of 80%. A grade of less than 80% for a single PT event requires the laboratory to provide DQA a corrective action plan that will remedy the unsatisfactory performance. Unsatisfactory scores on two or more events in a twelve-month period will require your laboratory to suspend implied consent alcohol testing. Additional samples for method evaluation will be provided by WSLH once corrective action has been taken by the laboratory. Approval by DQA for the laboratory to resume implied consent alcohol testing will be contingent on satisfactory analyses of these samples.

Laboratory personnel performing testing of implied consent specimens must hold a valid permit for alcohol analysis. DQA issues permits based on the education and training of analysts who are employed in an approved laboratory. Laboratories must maintain PT performance records for each of their analysts actively involved in implied consent alcohol testing.

Issuance of the permits for alcohol analysis and approval of laboratories occurs at the beginning of each calendar year.

Correspondence to DQA concerning the certified laboratory or analyst programs should be submitted to:

Barbara Saar, Quality Assurance Program Specialist of the Clinical Lab Section
Division of Quality Assurance
P.O. Box 2969
Madison, Wisconsin 53701-2969
(608) 261-0653.

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Last Updated: September 30, 2011