Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms laboratory earns CAP, AABB reaccreditations
TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. — Behind many of the medical decisions made at Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms is a team providing clinicians with the diagnostic information they need to deliver timely, high-quality care.
The Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms laboratory department recently earned reaccreditation from the College of American Pathologists (CAP), while its blood bank was also reaccredited by the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB). Both accreditations are valid for two years.
Capt. Janiese Cleckley, director, Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms, presented the reaccreditation certificates to the laboratory team during a ceremony at the hospital on Sept. 17.
For Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Magare, director for clinical support services (DCSS) at Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms, the achievements reflect not only the quality of the laboratory, but the important role clinical support services play in delivering comprehensive healthcare and maintaining warfighter readiness.
“Lab services are critical in guiding clinicians’ decision making,” Magare said. “Lab diagnostics are the foundational engine of modern healthcare. Whether identifying infectious pathogens, monitoring chronic conditions, or screening for environmental-related injuries in the High Desert, our laboratory provides clinicians with the rapid, objective data required to make precise, definitive treatment decisions.”
The hospital's CAP accreditation encompasses a broad range of laboratory services, including bacteriology, chemistry, coagulation, hematology, immunohematology, point-of-care testing, special chemistry, toxicology, transfusion services, urinalysis and virology.
Those capabilities are especially important at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC) Twentynine Palms, where service members routinely conduct physically demanding training in a challenging desert environment.
“For warfighters executing rigorous combined-arms training at MCAGCC Twentynine Palms, precise and timely lab results directly support force survivability and combat readiness,” Magare said.
As DCSS, Magare helps oversee services that support providers throughout the continuum of patient care. While patients may most often associate healthcare with their direct interaction with a physician, nurse or corpsman, clinical support departments provide many of the diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities those providers rely on to evaluate patients and determine appropriate treatment.
The laboratory is a key part of that system, producing information that can help clinicians identify illness, monitor a patient's condition and guide treatment. Its blood bank and transfusion capabilities provide another critical component of care.
CAP accreditation requires laboratories to meet standards designed to promote accurate and reliable laboratory testing. Magare said reaccreditation provides independent validation of the laboratory's processes and the quality controls behind the results clinicians use to make medical decisions.
“CAP reaccreditation is the global gold standard for laboratory quality assurance,” Magare said. “It independently confirms that our specimen processing, calibration precision, and test reliability mirror those of top-tier academic medical centers, ensuring maximum diagnostic accuracy.”
For patients and healthcare providers, those standards mean the same emphasis on quality extends beyond the main hospital.
“This recognition assures warfighters, families, and providers that regardless of whether a specimen is drawn at the main hospital or a branch health clinic, the result meets identical national-tier quality controls under our HRO (high reliability organization) framework,” Magare said.
The laboratory's recent AABB reaccreditation further recognizes the standards maintained within its blood banking and transfusion operations. Together, the two reaccreditations demonstrate the breadth of quality controls supporting laboratory and transfusion services across the command.
Magare credited the accomplishments to the laboratory personnel who maintain those standards every day.
“This achievement reflects the relentless technical competence, discipline, and attention to detail demonstrated daily by our civilian and active-duty medical laboratory technicians, officers, and superb lab leadership,” Magare said. “Every CAP-certified result represents strict calibration, documentation, and peer review.”
That consistency, he added, is what makes accreditation more than a periodic inspection or administrative milestone.
“Reaccreditation is not the result of a temporary surge in effort; it reflects a daily culture of self-critique, peer accountability, and ongoing refinement that ensures our patients receive quality lab services around the clock,” Magare said.
For Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms, maintaining accredited clinical support capabilities helps ensure providers have the resources and information necessary to care for service members, retirees and families while supporting the readiness of the operational forces training at the installation.
“Operating aboard the Marine Corps’ premier desert training installation, our clinicians rely on laboratory accuracy to make critical medical decisions for warfighters under demanding conditions,” Magare said. “This milestone proves that our hospital consistently provides national-tier diagnostic reliability to our Marines, Sailors, retirees, allied nation service members and their families.”
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