Summit Health’s Director of Regulatory Compliance and VP of Quality both monitor changes to state regulations and Board of Pharmacy requirements. In addition, our Medical Review Board reviews and approves all our guidelines and protocols, and our legal counsel reviews annually any changes to healthcare industry and government regulations.

National Guidelines

Summit Health monitors the following national sources for guidelines for our healthy heart screening programs:

• For lipid testing, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and primarily the National Cholesterol Education Panel (NCEP) – Adult panel III. (www.nhlbi.nih.gov)
• For fasting and non-fasting glucose, the American Diabetes Association (ADA),
• For Blood Pressure and BMI screening, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHBLI).

When new guidelines are released by nationally recognized government agencies, our Medical Review Board and Director of Regulatory Compliance updates our forms with the most recent interpretive guidelines.

Summit Health Medical Review Board reviews standards from the following organizations:

• Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
• National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP)
• American Heart Association (AHA)
• American Dietetic Association
• American Diabetes Association (ADA)
• National Heart Lung Blood Institute (NHLBI)
• American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)

State Regulations

Summit Health must follow not only federally mandated reference guidelines, but also comply with state-specific testing/counseling/referral guidelines. For example:

• Maryland has state-specific regulations on counseling and referral regulations which are more stringent and give specific indications of the education a patient must receive based on the screening results. Maryland also allows limited testing (cholesterol and HDL). These guidelines dictated by Maryland CLIA.
  
  
• Maine CLIA requires the use of a state-specific educational pamphlet for healthy heart counseling and only allows limited testing (cholesterol and HDL).
  
  
  
• Massachusetts CLIA requires that Summit Health provide a list of instrument limitations to each participant so they may be taken into consideration during the interpretation of test results.
  
  
• Oregon does not allow Triglyceride testing on any participant who has not fasted at least 12-16 hours prior to the event.