ArticleThe Journal of infectious diseases2016
Improved Specimen-Referral System and Increased Access to Quality Laboratory Services in Ethiopia: The Role of the Public-Private Partnership.
Article in The Journal of infectious diseases, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Managing public-private partnerships for health diagnostics: challenges and strategies.Health policy and planning · 2026Article
- Determinants of quality laboratory service provision amongst government comprehensive specialized hospitals in Northwest Ethiopia.Health research policy and systems · 2026Article
- Facilitators and barriers of public-private partnerships for universal health coverage in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review.Health policy and planning · 2026Article
- Trends and determinants of laboratory specimen rejection rates at Debre Markos comprehensive specialized hospital in Ethiopia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Implementation of an Integrated Sample Referral System (ISRS) in Ghana: Successes and Lessons Learnt from a Pilot Study in the Northern and Greater Accra Regions.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Improving the specimen referral system in Ghana: findings from a landscape assessment.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- A Generalizable Decision-Making Framework for Selecting Onsite versus Send-out Clinical Laboratory Testing.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2024Article
- Implementation and performance evaluation of an integrated specimen referral system in Burkina Faso using the national courier services (2020-2022).Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Laboratory specimen rejection rate and associated factors among referred specimens at Debre Markos Referral Hospital, Ethiopia: prospective cross-sectional study.The Pan African medical journal · 2024Article
- Providing specimen transport through an online marketplace in the Northern region of Ghana.African journal of laboratory medicine · 2023Article
- Progress in scale up of HIV viral load testing in select sub-Saharan African countries 2016-2018.PloS one · 2023Article
- Primary Health Care System Strengthening Project in Sri Lanka: Status and Challenges with Human Resources, Information Systems, Drugs and Laboratory Services.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Losses in the Sputum Specimen Referral Cascade in Mpulungu District, Zambia: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Use of Physical Accessibility Modelling in Diagnostic Network Optimization: A Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Evaluation of the postal service for referral of specimen of drug resistance tuberculosis in Amhara region, Ethiopia; mixed method.African health sciences · 2021Article
- Standardizing clinical culture specimen collection in Ethiopia: a training-of-trainers.BMC medical education · 2021Article
- Factors influencing the length of hospital stay during the intensive phase of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment at Amhara regional state hospitals, Ethiopia: a retrospective follow up study.BMC public health · 2020Article
- Designing and Piloting a Specimen Transport System in Burkina Faso.Health security · 2020Article
- Article
- Point-of-Care HIV Viral Load Testing: an Essential Tool for a Sustainable Global HIV/AIDS Response.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundNonstandardized specimen-transport logistics, lack of laboratory personnel to transport specimens, lack of standard specimen containers, and long turnaround time (TAT) hindered access to quality laboratory services. The objective of the Becton, Dickinson, and Company (BD)-US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Public-Private Partnership (PPP) was to support country-specific programs to develop integrated laboratory systems, services, and quality improvement strategies, with an emphasis on strengthening the specimen-referral system (SRS).
methodsIn 2007, through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) joined with the BD-PEPFAR PPP to strengthen laboratory systems. A joint planning and assessment committee identified gaps in the SRS for prioritization and intervention and piloted the system in Addis Ababa and Amhara Region.
resultsThe PPP established standardized, streamlined specimen logistics, using the Ethiopian Postal Service Enterprise to support a laboratory network in which 554 facilities referred specimens to 160 laboratories. The PPP supported procuring 400 standard specimen containers and the training of 586 laboratory personnel and 81 postal workers. The average TAT was reduced from 7 days (range, 2-14 days) to 2 days (range, 1-3 days) in Addis Ababa and from 10 days (range, 6-21 days) to 5 days (range, 2-6 days) in Amhara Region.
conclusionsThis study highlights the feasibility and untapped potential of PPPs to strengthen laboratory systems. This planned and structured approach to improving specimen referral enhanced access to quality laboratory services.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.