We are open and able to accept evidence at this time! We've finished and finalized our security, signed off our relevant policies and procedures and tested/implemented our chain of custody software and laboratory information management system (LIMS) and have gone through some internal and invite-only external clients to ensure we've got everything buttoned up and ready to go live.
In short, years of hard work, passion and dedication have led to this. We are open and accepting evidence!!
Thank you to everyone who have gotten us to this place. I promise we will take time celebrate and give out thanks to all who have played a role in our successes so far, but there's still a lot to of work to be done and a COVID-19 pandemic to overcome before we get there (we'll keep you updated when it's safe to have a more "grand" opening).
For those that wish to submit, we have an amazing tool to do so in implementing our case submission portal (thank you to www.justicetrax.com ). If you are interested in submitting evidence to us, please go to https://www.intermountainforensics.com/submission. Scroll down to the "new client registration" and fill out the information (pay special attention to the department/agency as that will be what your reports will be issued to and portal entry will be named). We will create your agency/department's portal and give you a login to get you up and running as well as sending over a user's guide for submitting anything. This should help immensely to track cases, error proof the transcribing of your data and receive your reports/case documentation electronically. We'll be here to help in whatever way you need to get this up and running for you!
In the spirit of transparency, I want to make sure you know that we will go live as a ANAB ISO 17025 applicant and not a fully accredited laboratory from day 1. The way the system works we will need to "show our work" before our assessment and, as such, we will be opening with our quality system in place, generating casework and submitting our documents to prepare for our assessment and give the accreditation team the information they need as they require. We hope to have that assessment in August-September time frame but we will adhere to the timeline that ANAB/ANSI gives us as we acknowledge they are heavily impacted by the COVID-19 travel restrictions.
I want to be sure you know that we are committed to the highest quality and transparency and our policies and procedures will be posted for your feedback, critique and quality review! Keep an eye out on https://www.intermountainforensics.com/policies-and-procedures as we populate it with our quality management system documents.
It's been a long and hard struggle to get this dream up and running but we've passed a huge obstacle and are now making some big strides. We appreciate your support, patience and passion as we continue to build this lab into something you can be proud of!
Thank you to everyone!
-Danny
Photo by Richard Balog on Unsplash