Abstract:
Background: A quality medical laboratory service is an important part of the health care system. In developing
countries like Ethiopia, the laboratory quality system remains weak due to several factors. Therefore, assessing
the factors affecting quality of medical laboratory service is highly important in order to improve service quality.
Objective: Assessment of factors affecting the quality of medical laboratory service in Gondar town public health
facilities, Amhara regional state, Northwest Ethiopia, 2018.
Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted at Gondar town governmental health facilities
from March to April 2018. A pretested, self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire and checklist was used to
collect the socio-demographic information of the study participants and to assess factors affecting the provision of
quality medical laboratory services. Data were checked for completeness, entered, and analyzed using SPSS version
20 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA). Data were reported in tables and figures. The strength of association
between the dependent and independent variables was assessed by the chi-square test. A p-value < 0.05 was
considered statistically significant.
Results: A total of 103 medical laboratory professionals participated in the study. Of these, 62 (60.2%) were males.
The majority of the study participants, 63 (61.2%), were laboratory technologists. Of these participants, 72
(69.9%) did not attend laboratory refresher training and 93 (90.3%) of participants were not satisfied with their
salary. Sixty-three (61.2%) of the participants reported that their laboratory did not provide quality laboratory
service. Lack of quality and adequate equipment, non-adherence to standard operating procedures, no continuing
professional development, unavailability of adequate supplies and reagents, no customer service management, no
regular internal and external quality assessment activity, no diagnostic service for all requested tests, no result
verification, and laboratory safety were the major factors significantly associated with poor quality laboratory
service (p < 0.05).
Conclusions: A high proportion of the study participants reported that their laboratory did not provide quality
laboratory services. The shortage of adequate equipment, reagents, and lack of motivation and employees’ recognitions
are the major factors that affect the quality of laboratory services.
(Clin. Lab. 2019;65:1001-1009. DOI: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2018.181037)
