Evaluation of Laboratory Performance, Associated Factors and Staff Awareness Towards Achieving Turnaround Time in Tertiary Hospitals, Ethiopia

Abstract

BACKGROUND: WHO recommends that each laboratory should establish turnaround time (TAT) to monitor and evaluate performance throughout processes. The status of established TAT was not yet assessed in Ethiopian Armed Force Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. The aim of this study was to evaluate the laboratory performance and associated factors towards achieving TAT in clinical chemistry and hematology tests at Armed Force Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.METHODS: Hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2019 to June 2019. Standardized questionnaire was designed to collected data on awareness of laboratory staffs about TAT. The data was entered, cleaned and analyzed using SPSS version 24.0 Software. Logistic regression analysis was done to find out statistically significant association and strength of association between dependent and independent variables at pvalue <0.05.RESULT: A total of 422 test results were systematically selected with 100% response rates. Of these, 253(59.9%) were chemistry tests. From the expected < 90min TAT clinical chemistry tests, only 41(16.2%) and from < 60min TAT time for hematology tests, 37(21.9%) met the target. The laboratory TAT was affected by factors including high work load, laboratory information system problem, power interruption and sample collection time. Moreover, the level of knowledge, attitude and practices of laboratory staffs towards laboratory TAT were 60%, 85.7% and62.9% respectively.CONCLUSION: Overall achievement of clinical Chemistry and hematology tests TAT was poor. The finding might reflect other public hospital situation in Addis Ababa. Thus, additional large scale studies need to conduct.

Assessment of hematology laboratory performance in the total testing process using quality indicators and sigma metrics in the northwest of Ethiopia: A cross‐sectional study

“…Besides, the current study showed that manual recording and the first work shift were statistically associated with prolonged TAT. This finding is supported by the study done in an Armed Forces hospital in Ethiopia 42 . Prolonged TAT on the first shift (morning) might be due to work overload and professional work fatigue.…”

Medical Laboratories Quality Management and Challenges in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review

“…25,26 In addition, this review noted that most laboratory tests had delayed TAT. 27 As good performance laboratory indicator, at least 90% of the tests need to be released within the target turnaround time. 28 Customer satisfaction also considered as laboratory service quality indicator and serves as an important improvement process tool using benchmark satisfaction level of 80% and above.…”

“…[29][30][31][32][33] Accessing quality laboratory services is a challenge in low-resource countries. 54 According to this review, the main challenges of laboratory service were problems associated with laboratory professionals, 11,13,15,19 inadequate support from management bodies, 11,15,16,45 high workload 27 and limited on job training access. 9 A similar study in Nigerian medical laboratories showed that poor infrastructure, financial limitations, insufficient capacity building, lack of consumables and equipment's, and motivated and dedicated laboratory personnel have been the main service quality challenges.…”

“…In turnaround time, two articles were looked at to evaluate service quality of medical laboratories. Gebreyes et al 27 showed that only 41 of 253 (16.2%) clinical chemistry test results were released within the target TAT. Shiferaw and Yismaw 28 also showed that 68.1% of the EID for HIV, 53.8% of the TB genexpert tests and 76.5% of the viral load had delayed turnaround time compared with the standard.…”

“…The other quality challenges were limited on job training access 9,14,17,26,35,36,41,43 and high workload. 27,28,38,41,42 Pathology and Laboratory Medicine International 2023:15…”