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Application The Perfect Lab Partner For Compliance For water testing facilities dealing with testing, reporting, and regulatory compliance issues, a laboratory information management system (LIMS) becomes a critical tool. by Jeanne Mensingh and Colin Thurston I n July 2011, the NELAC (National Environmental Accreditation Conference) standards were revised as the new The NELAC Institute (TNI) Standard 2009, based on ISO 17025 guidance. Implementation of this updated TNI standard by the respective accrediting bodies will become a reality in the next year, though many have already implemented the new standard. For water system operators and testing labs, not only does this require adherence with ISO 17025 standards, it also requires analysis of at least five new contaminants and lower limits for existing contaminants as designated by the EPA in their annual review. The resulting increase in sample management and data analysis workload necessitates an invest- ment in automated workflow. Laboratory information manage- ment systems (LIMS) are critical tools in enabling water operators and testing labs to meet the ongo- ing requirements of TNI stan- dards, helping them prepare for state, regulatory, or NELAC audits with all defensible data properly documented and prepared. By automating operations and inte- grating instruments, labs can build in regulatory compliance, increase capacity and sample throughput, and also reduce time spent on manual activi- ties such as recording data in paper notebooks or using spreadsheets to create reports. LIMS Facilitate Regulatory Compliance, Improve Lab Efficiencies LIMS have been available for more than 25 years, help- ing laboratories manage their samples and laboratory processes. Many water laboratories currently use LIMS for some activities, but on the whole, much of the sample and related data management is still done through manual collection and reporting processes, using either paper lab notebooks or spreadsheets. While these types of manual processes may be comfortable, they also introduce a cer- tain level of risk — manual processes are error prone, the data is not searchable or collaborative in any way, and 52 Water Online The Magazine, Wastewater Edition ■ wateronline.com "To ensure compliance and to make the audit process more efficient, water testing labs should have in place automated laboratory information management systems that will generate, store, and report on valid and traceable data." Jeanne Mensingh, NELAC auditor and president, Labtopia Solutions they are more time consuming, taking lab managers and systems operators away from more value-added work. Moving to a LIMS can be a daunting prospect for a water testing lab, but one which is becoming essential. By implementing a LIMS preconfigured to meet the needs of water system operators and testers, many of the challenges are significantly reduced. With a LIMS designed to address the specific workflow and regula- tory requirements of water testing labs, lab managers are enabled to make quick decisions and rapidly share information with management, in addition to being able to respond to ongoing regulatory and business demands. With recently developed LIMS, water testing labs are able to establish protocols and docu- mentation methods that meet NELAC compliance requirements and ISO 17025 guidelines. With specific functionality built into the LIMS to improve workflow and lab efficiency, reports can easily be automated to ensure full traceability, and the integrity of the lab's data is assured. State regulatory agencies and the EPA require reporting of lab results in a standardized and structured format. A LIMS can easily store the sample data and collate it in the format appropriate for each regulatory recipient. A LIMS designed specifically for water system operators allows labs to be much more efficient by taking data directly from the instruments and comparing it with the regulatory limits for various contaminants. Once the data is in the LIMS, a predefined set of templates for reporting can be used, allowing the lab to automate data output and enabling lab operators to spend significantly more of their time testing and processing samples. For commercial laboratory organizations, packaging and reporting results, and the associated quality control data for their clients, is often the deliverable product, so automating the creation and delivery of this package can also trigger the invoice process. A LIMS designed for water and environmental labs