title: Most clinical laboratory testing in Kampala occurs in high-volume, high-quality laboratories or low-volume, low-quality laboratories. A tale of two cities.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe key characteristics (laboratory quality, test volumes, and complexity) of clinical laboratories in Kampala, Uganda (population ~1.7 million).
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional survey using a standard questionnaire to document laboratory type and quality, as well as test menus and volumes. Quality was based on the World Health Organization-Africa Region checklist.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 954 laboratories identified (a density of one laboratory per 1,781 persons), 779 (82%) performed only simple kit tests or light microscope examinations. The 95% (907/954) of laboratories for whom volumes were obtained performed an average aggregate of 13,189 tests daily, for a test utilization rate of around 2 tests per individual per year. Laboratories could be segregated into eight groups based on quality, test volume, and complexity. However, 90% of the testing was performed by just two groups: (1) low-volume (≤100 tests daily), low-quality laboratories performing simple tests or (2) high-volume (>100 tests daily), high-quality laboratories. Each of these two groups did 45% of the daily testing volume (90% combined).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Clinical laboratory density in Kampala (1/1,781 persons) is high, approaching that in the United States (1/1,347 persons). Low-volume/low-quality and high-volume/high-quality laboratories do 90% of the daily aggregate testing. Quality improvement (QI) schemes for Africa must be appropriate to low-volume laboratories as well as to the large laboratories that have been the focus of previous QI efforts.
authors.affiliation: From Makerere University-Johns Hopkins University Clinical Core Laboratory at Infectious Diseases Institute, Kampala, Uganda; Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD; and tamukel1@jhmi.edu.
authors.forename: Timothy K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Amukele
authors.affiliation: Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.
authors.forename: Lee F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.affiliation: From Makerere University-Johns Hopkins University Clinical Core Laboratory at Infectious Diseases Institute, Kampala, Uganda; Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD; and.
authors.forename: J Brooks
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.affiliation: From Makerere University-Johns Hopkins University Clinical Core Laboratory at Infectious Diseases Institute, Kampala, Uganda; Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD; and.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elbireer
mesh_terms: D064790:Clinical Laboratory Services; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012107:Research Design; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014454:Uganda
keywords: Africa; Global health; Laboratory; Point of care; Quality improvement; Test utilization; Uganda; Volume