Using laboratory data to categorise CD4 laboratory turn-around-time performance across a national programme

African Journal of Laboratory Medicine
Lindi Marie CoetzeeDeborah Kim Glencross

Abstract

The National Health Laboratory Service provides CD4 testing through an integrated tiered service delivery model with a target laboratory turn-around time (TAT) of 48 h. Mean TAT provides insight into national CD4 laboratory performance. However, it is not sensitive enough to identify inefficiencies of outlying laboratories or predict the percentage of samples meeting the TAT target. The aim of this study was to describe the use of the median, 75th percentile and percentage within target of laboratory TAT data to categorise laboratory performance. Retrospective CD4 laboratory data for 2015-2016 fiscal year were extracted from the corporate data warehouse. The laboratory TAT distribution and percentage of samples within the 48 h target were assessed. A scatter plot was used to categorise laboratory performance into four quadrants using both the percentage within target and 75th percentile TAT. The laboratory performance was labelled good, satisfactory or poor. TAT data reported a positive skew with a mode of 13 h and a median of 17 h and 75th percentile of 25 h. Overall, 93.2% of CD4 samples had a laboratory TAT of less than 48 h. 48 out of 52 laboratories reported good TAT performance, i.e. percentage within target > 85% and 75t...Continue Reading

References

Oct 4, 2011·Indian Journal of Clinical Biochemistry : IJCB·Binita GoswamiV Mallika
May 20, 2014·Indian Journal of Hematology & Blood Transfusion : an Official Journal of Indian Society of Hematology and Blood Transfusion·Hara P Pati, Gurmeet Singh
Jul 1, 2017·Journal of Public Health Research·Claudia ArchettiEmirena Garrafa

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Citations

Dec 21, 2018·African Journal of Laboratory Medicine·Iruka N Okeke
Apr 25, 2019·BMC Health Services Research·Melashu Balew Shiferaw, Gizachew Yismaw
Jun 23, 2020·Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy·Greg GreeneJoseph N Jarvis
Jan 5, 2021·African Journal of Laboratory Medicine·Lindi-Marie CoetzeeDeborah K Glencross

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