Beyond Compliance: Designing Meaningful Annual Safety Audits

Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2027
11 a.m.–Noon CT

Cost

Free for all participants.

Overview

Annual laboratory safety audits can be more than a compliance exercise. When designed as a collaborative and educational process, they can help laboratories identify risk, share effective practices, strengthen staff engagement, foster organizational learning, and build a more consistent approach to safety across diverse work areas.

This webinar describes lessons learned from the evolution of an internal laboratory safety audit program. Presenters will discuss strategies used to support self-assessments and peer walkthroughs, including customized checklists, evidence-of-compliance resources, auditor preparation, cross-functional participation, feedback mechanisms, and the use of audit results to guide ongoing improvement. Attendees will leave with practical approaches they can adapt to strengthen their own laboratory safety audit programs.

Presenter

Ann Marie Miller, CG(ASCP)CM 

Quality Management Coordinator 
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology 
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 

Steven Spors

Senior Automation Test Developer
Information Technology
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

Learning objectives

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

    • Describe how laboratory safety audits can be leveraged beyond compliance to improve safety culture and organizational learning.

    • Identify strategies that promote staff engagement, transparency, and proactive risk awareness through the audit process.

    • Apply lessons learned from a mature safety audit program to strengthen continuous improvement efforts within their own organization.

Intended audience

This webinar is appropriate for laboratory administrators and managers, safety coordinators, quality assurance and control staff, supervisors, and other laboratory personnel who are dedicated to safety, continuous quality, and process improvement. 

Credit

The following types of credit are offered for this event:

ASCLS P.A.C.E.®

Mayo Clinic Laboratories is approved as a provider of continuing education programs in the Clinical Laboratory Sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E.® program. This program has been approved for a maximum of 1.0 P.A.C.E.® contact hour.

State of Florida

Mayo Clinic Laboratories is approved as a Continuing Education Accrediting Agency for the Clinical Laboratory Sciences for the State of Florida. Florida Board of Clinical Laboratory Personnel has designated this program for Supervisor/Administration, Quality Control/Quality Assurance, and Safety credit. This program has been approved for 1.0 contact hour.

To obtain credit


To obtain credit:

  1. Register for and participate in the program. 
  2. Complete the evaluation that will be sent to you after the program. 
  3. Generate and print your certificate(s). 


Level of instruction for this program is basic.


Faculty disclosure


Course director(s), planning committee, faculty, and all others who are in a position to control the content of this educational activity are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with any commercial interest related to the subject matter of the educational activity. Safeguards against commercial bias have been put in place. Faculty members also will disclose any off-label and/or investigational use of pharmaceuticals or instruments discussed in their presentations. Disclosure of this information will be published in course materials so those participants in the activity may formulate their own judgments regarding the presentations.

Questions

Contact us: mcleducation@mayo.edu

MCL Education

This post was developed by our Education and Technical Publications Team.