"We continually strive to improve the quality of our services, and meeting The Joint Commission's rigorous national standards is an important recognition of our efforts," says Jeanne Smith, laboratory manager. The Joint Commission evaluated the laboratory's performance in complying with nearly 300 standards related to quality control, safety, infection control, leadership, management of human resources, management of information, ongoing performance improvement activities and other issues.

The Joint Commission is dedicated to continuously improving the safety and quality of the nation's health care through voluntary accreditation.

"The accreditation process helps promote continuous, systematic and organization-wide improvement in health care organizations," says Gina Zimmermann, M.S., senior executive director, The Joint Commission. "Achieving accreditation demonstrates Allegan General Hospital commitment to providing high quality and safe services."

Smith says efforts to improve don't stop when The Joint Commission survey is over. "Meeting the standards and achieving excellence is a continuous process," says Smith. "No matter how well we did today, we continue to strive to do better tomorrow. Our goal is to provide our patients with the best experience possible."

In fact, patients can have lab work done anytime day or night, seven days a week at Allegan General Hospital. No appointment is needed. Patients just need to bring with them to the hospital a physician order and their insurance card. For more information about AGH’s Laboratory, please call (269) 686-4030.

Allegan General Hospital is a community hospital that focuses on providing exceptional, compassionate and personalized healthcare to the community it serves. Allegan General provides a wide range of healthcare services, including bariatric, surgery, sleep center, emergency, physical rehabilitation and mental health. For more information on the hospital, visit www.aghosp.org.