With the onslaught of the proliferation of numerous Medical Laboratories in Ghana, many of the Public and Private Laboratories in Ghana have been set up without any proper regulation. This increase in medical laboratories came along with many challenges for the healthcare delivery sector and one of such is Total Quality Management which for the purpose of this study refers to the quality of the results. The absence of well-resourced regulatory body to oversee the operations of these laboratories is a source of worry. The Quality of Laboratory results released to patients is so critical that if no proper quality systems and process are adhered to, it puts patients at risk. It is in this context that the researcher wants to analyze the Total …show more content…
Not enough health laboratory technologists, laboratory technicians and biomedical scientists have been trained to keep pace with the number of hospitals, clinics and health posts.
The trained medical laboratory expert (in Ghana could be anyone called Medical Laboratory Scientist, Medical Laboratory Technologist, Medical Laboratory Technician or Medical Laboratory Assistant) study the request made by the medical doctor and advise the patient to produce or the expert collect biological samples that would be appropriate to get acceptable results for the medical doctor to either accept his suspicion or think otherwise.
Specimen collection is a very critical quality criterion which cannot be easily overlooked. Wrong specimen collected will result in wrong a result produced which negatively affects the quality of reportable results given to patients. In this direction, it is therefore imperative for staff to be properly trained in the collection of patients’ samples to avoid incorrect …show more content…
These standards which will help to establish a trusted system for delivery of medical laboratory services have been developed and no commitment has been made to utilize it for the benefit of Ghanaians. Though there is an existing document which was developed with Ghanaian and international experts which if used would address issues affecting medical laboratory quality practices in Ghana, not much has been done to push it forward its implementation.
Basically, most of the private Laboratories have their accreditation from outside the country and the dominant among them is from South Africa, Germany and other European countries. These accreditation agencies do regular visits to ascertain the quality processes followed by these private labs.
The public laboratories on the hand are generally supported with accreditation formalities by CDC and other international donor partners. One of such quality initiative was SLMTA which sought to prepare the Laboratories toward accreditation. Apart from these initiatives, most of these labs also collaborate with some foreign partners to conduct external quality audits to verify their quality processes. This in a way also helps to improve on the total quality management processes within the laboratory