What CLIA & CAP surveyors actually check on your equipment

When a surveyor walks into your lab, the procedures binder is only half the story. A large share of citations come from the equipment — and specifically from the documentation that proves each instrument is calibrated, safe, and monitored. Here's what they look for, and where labs most often fall short.

1. Calibration status & records

Are your centrifuges, pipettes, thermometers, and thermocyclers calibrated on a defined schedule, with current NIST-traceable certificates? Surveyors check whether the schedule exists, whether it's being followed, and whether you can produce the proof. Expired or missing calibration is one of the most common — and most avoidable — findings.

2. Electrical safety verification

Powered patient- and specimen-contact equipment is expected to be electrically safe per NFPA 99, with documentation. A device that's never been safety-tested, or whose test has lapsed, is an easy finding. See electrical safety testing.

3. Temperature monitoring

Refrigerators, freezers, and storage units protecting specimens, reagents, and vaccines need calibrated monitoring and a record that holds up. Thin or missing temperature logs draw scrutiny fast.

4. Labeling & traceability

Can a surveyor glance at an instrument and see when it was last serviced and when it's next due? On-device labels and an organized certificate file turn a tense conversation into a quick one.

Most gaps that fail labs are equipment gaps — and a compliance binder can't fix an uncalibrated centrifuge.

The unfair advantage

The reason equipment gaps persist is that they sit between two vendors: a compliance consultant who handles paperwork but doesn't touch the equipment, and a service company that fixes equipment but doesn't document compliance. The labs that pass cleanly use one partner who does both — service and documentation — so nothing falls through the cracks. That's the core of inspection readiness.