Major Challenges of Medical Laboratories for ISO 15189 Accreditation in Selected Government Hospitals of Addis Ababa, Debrebrhan, and Bishoftu, Ethiopia
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2017-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Numerous global initiatives in Africa have focused on clinical laboratoryharmonization and standardization, and accreditation. Though accreditation has many advantagesand advocated largely, it is still challenging for the laboratories to fulfill all requirements and thecriteria of accrediting bodies. So identifying the different challenges faced by the laboratoriesduring the process of accreditation is important for proper planning and action to resolve thosechallenges.
Objective: To assess the major challenges of Medical Laboratories for ISO 15189 accreditation inselected government hospitals of Addis Ababa, Debrebrhan, and Bishoftu, Ethiopia.
Method: Cross sectional study design using qualitative and quantitative data collection approachwas used from March to May 2017. The data for this study was gathered using structuredquestionnaire and in-depth interview. Stratified-proportional sampling technique was used. Datawas entered, cleaned using EPI-Data 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 software for furtherprocessing and analysis. Simple descriptive statistics like percentages and frequency was used. Thequalitative data from in-depth interview were categorized and discussed.
Result: In this research 175 questionnaire respondents and 24 key informants from 12 hospitalswere included to identify the major challenges facing medical laboratory’s accreditation process.All respondents had awareness about the accreditation process but only 79% of them haveinvolved in the process in one or more ways. More than half of the respondents (51%) had trainingexperience related to either laboratory LQMS or ISO accreditation. High turnover of trained andexperienced laboratory professionals for better job opportunity and education was reported tomainly affect the accreditation process. Routine work load, poor equipment quality, shortage andquality of laboratory supplies, inconsistent mentorship and training, strict assessment process andlow attention and commitment from top management were among the major challenges identified.
Conclusion: Even though there exists an effort to fulfil accreditation requirements, achieving andmaintaining accreditation was still challenging for many facilities due to; trained staff turnover,training and mentorship inadequacy, low staff satisfaction, low quality and quantity of equipments,low top management support, and poor quality laboratory facility. This study highlights the needfor stronger engagement, commitment and advocacy with all stakeholders to harmonize and leadaccreditation program effectively.
Keywords: LQMS, accreditation, challenge, ISO 15189, SLMTA/SLIPTA, Medical laboratory
Description
Keywords
LQMS Accreditation Challenge ISO 15189 SLMTA/SLIPTA Medical laboratory