Stephanie Shea, Associate Director NEPDN
The Northeast Plant Diagnostic Network (NEPDN) held its 2023 regional meeting two months ago on March 6 and 7 in Southbury, Connecticut. A total of 18 diagnosticians gathered from the region, with representation from each of the 13 labs across the 12 states in the region. The regional meeting focused on making progress towards attaining National Plant Diagnostic Network (NPDN) Core Accreditation. We started the meeting off on March 6 with regional updates and then dove right into accreditation each equipped with a hard copy of the Core Standard and a computer to access and edit the Quality Manual template. With these two documents side by side, and Karen Snover-Clift’s guidance, we worked as a group through each and every line of the Core Standard. As we read the requirements of the Core Standard, we each simultaneously customized the Quality Manual to our specific lab. We then separately each made a list of any supporting documents that would need to be generated. We finished editing the Quality Manual by early afternoon on the March 7, and we all began working on the required supporting documents.
It is safe to say that all NEPDN labs have read through and understand the Core Standard, have mostly adapted the Quality Manual Template to their lab, and have begun to think about supporting documents. The region requested that we continue to encourage accountability of accreditation progress by devoting monthly meetings to the topic and requiring sections of the Quality Manual (with supporting documents) be complete by each meeting, which we have implemented. They’ve also requested webinars and/or one-on-one meetings to address questions or concerns that arise and to help with the generation of the supporting documents. Furthermore, in an exit survey, 62% of individuals that filled out the survey indicated they would benefit from someone visiting their lab to help review their accreditation program in the next year and all indicated they would benefit from Zoom sessions dedicated to helping them develop their accreditation program. Our region and the network will strive to respond to these needs to stimulate and support progress towards accreditation. According to the survey, everyone was satisfied with the meeting overall. In particular, attendees enjoyed the in-person connection and found the meeting to be useful in regards to their lab’s progress on attaining Core Accreditation.
