ArticlePloS one2025
Evaluating turnaround time to improve clients' satisfaction in the tuberculosis reference laboratory in Douala.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
introductionDelivery delays of laboratory results can result in death and/or economic loss to both the patient and the health system. Data is limited regarding turnaround time for tuberculosis testing in Cameroon. We evaluated intra- turnaround time in tuberculosis diagnosis, identified root causes, and brainstormed solutions to improve patient satisfaction. MATERIALS AND
methodsIn this cross-sectional descriptive study, turnaround time for the pre-analytic phase was set at 3 hours, the analytic phase at 11 hours, and the post-analytic phase at 10 hours. The overall turnaround time was 24 hours. We used the Fishbone method of problem analysis involving the personnel of the Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory-Douala, to identify root causes. We brainstormed using the "Whys" causes of turnaround time failure during the process of tuberculosis diagnosis by GeneXpert MTB/RIF.
resultsWe analyzed samples from 526 clients. The median turnaround time was 45 (Range: 2-120) hours. A total of 216(41.1%) clients had a turnaround time failure. The turnaround time failures in the pre-analytic, analytic, and post-analytics phases were 64(29.6%), 128(59.3%), and 12(11.1%) respectively. Overall, 19 root causes of turnaround time failure were identified and grouped into six categories, namely: equipment, administration, technical-staff, environment, material, and method. Equipment maintenance (defective or non-calibrated modules) was the critical cause of turnaround time failures accounting for 86 (39.8%) of the overall turnaround time failure.
conclusionturnaround time in tuberculosis diagnosis is longer than expected, retarding patient care management. Focusing on equipment maintenance enhances the intra-laboratory testing process, thus improving overall patient satisfaction. The need for further studies to incorporate the extra-laboratory turnaround time in assessing the overall turnaround time is imperative.
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