The Ovation Fertility Austin laboratory is certified by the College of American Pathologists.
All IVF laboratories that desire certification/approval from the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) must be certified by either CAP, an organization referred to as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospital Organizations (JCAHO) which certifies hospital based laboratories or the New York State Health Department (only certifies laboratories that operate in New York).
CAP uses embryologists from major IVF programs around the country as their inspectors, and the CAP inspection process is very rigorous – requiring weeks of advance planning and preparation. The process involves an inspection, not only of our Austin IVF lab’s laboratory techniques, equipment, and personnel, but also of our procedures, protocols, quality assurance/control, and documentation of all of the above.
The andrology laboratory part of Ovation Fertility Austin is certified by an organization called CLIA which was established under the Federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act. This is a totally separate organization from CAP and the inspection process is also very different. We have to maintain certification from each of these two organizations in order to be able to operate.
In addition to the major certifications above, there are numerous other state and federal organizations that our program must obtain certification/approval from in order to legally operate.
For example, our physicians have to maintain certifications/approvals from:
- Texas Medical Board
- American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG)
- Reproductive Endocrinology subspecialty of ABOG
- Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
- Texas state department of Public Safety (DPS)
- Society of Assisted Reproductive Endocrinology (SART)
- Travis County Medical Society
In fact, a recent study suggested that the average RE/I medical practice has to answer to 13 different federal/state organizations for the licenses and certifications required to be able to operate.
