Quality of Medical Laboratory Services in a Tertiary Health Institution in Sokoto, Nigeria

Background and Aims: The issue of the quality in healthcare cannot be ignored anymore. Laboratories play vital roles in control and prevention of diseases by providing timely and accurate result for patient management including disease surveillance. The aim of the study is to assess the quality of laboratory services in a Tertiary Health Institution in Sokoto. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was used and a two-stage sampling technique applied to select the 96 laboratory respondents and 60 clinicians from a tertiary hospital in Sokoto Nigeria. Close-ended, self-administered questionnaires and a checklist were used to collect data, which were analyzed using SPSS. Results: More than two-thirds of laboratory respondents have not received in-service trainings and among the few that received trainings, only three had training on laboratory quality management. Nearly all the laboratories have the basic infrastructure to ensure quality services. More than two-thirds of laboratory respondents had committed errors on the bench while 83% reported observing other laboratory staff commit errors. Three-quarters of the errors committed were at the pre-analytical and analytical phases, the most prevalent being mislabeling or failing to label the sample and complete loss of results, respectively. Length of time to obtain results and opportunity to discuss the findings with the laboratory personnel were laboratory services rated poor by clinicians. Conclusions: Few laboratory respondents received in-service training on laboratory quality assurance and most prevalent errors committed were at pre-analytical and analytical phases. Staff trainings and enforcement of quality standards in medical laboratories is recommended.