What SLIPTA is
SLIPTA stands for Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation. A laboratory is assessed against a checklist built on the twelve quality system essentials and is awarded a star rating that reflects how far it has progressed towards international accreditation standards.
Where laboratories usually lose points
Common gaps are not exotic: documents without clear control and review dates, equipment without calibration or maintenance records, no evidence that corrective actions were followed up, and inventory records that cannot show what was used when.
Prepare continuously
The cheapest way to be ready is to keep the evidence as a by-product of daily work: records created when the task is done, assigned to a person, with dates. A self-assessment against the checklist every few months shows the gaps while there is still time to close them.
Keep the loop closed
A finding only counts when it becomes a corrective action with an owner, a due date and a recorded outcome. Track those in one place so nothing is lost between assessments.
Common questions
No. Software does not replace a quality system, but it makes the evidence complete, dated and easy to produce, which is where many laboratories struggle.
Many laboratories do so a few times a year and before each formal assessment, so gaps are found early.