title: The status of medical laboratory towards of AFRO-WHO accreditation process in government and private health facilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) introduces a step wise incremental accreditation approach to improving quality of laboratory and it is a new initiative in Ethiopia and activities are performed for implementation of accreditation program.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in 30 laboratory facilities including 6 laboratory sections to determine their status towards of accreditation using WHO AFRO accreditation checklist and 213 laboratory professionals were interviewed to assess their knowledge on quality system essentials and accreditation in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 30 laboratory facilities 1 private laboratory scored 156 (62%) points, which is the minimum required point for WHO accreditation and the least score was 32 (12.8%) points from government laboratory. The assessment finding from each section indicate that 2 Clinical chemistry (55.2% & 62.8%), 2 Hematology (55.2% & 62.8%), 2 Serology (55.2% & 62.8%), 2 Microbiology (55.2% & 62.4%), 1 Parasitology (62.8%) & 1 Urinalysis (61.6%) sections scored the minimum required point for WHO accreditation. The average score for government laboratories was 78.2 (31.2%) points, of these 6 laboratories were under accreditation process with 106.2 (42.5%) average score, while the private laboratories had 71.2 (28.5%) average score. Of 213 respondents 197 (92.5%) professionals had a knowledge on quality system essentials whereas 155 (72.8%) respondents on accreditation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although majority of the laboratory professionals had knowledge on quality system and accreditation, laboratories professionals were not able to practice the quality system properly and most of the laboratories had poor status towards the WHO accreditation process. Thus government as well as stakeholders should integrate accreditation program into planning and health policy.
authors.affiliation: Quality Africa Network (Pty) /GIZ, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Eyob Abera
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Mesfin
authors.affiliation: Addis Ababa University College of Health Science, School of Medicine Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Bineyam
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Taye
authors.affiliation: Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institutes, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Getachew
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Belay
authors.affiliation: African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Aytenew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ashenafi
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation; D000328:Adult; D057189:Checklist; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005002:Ethiopia; D005260:Female; D006268:Health Facilities / Q000592:standards*; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D008297:Male; D017056:Medical Laboratory Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D058996:Quality Improvement; D014944:World Health Organization; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Accreditation; SLMTA; WHO-AFRO; laboratory; quality