The Evaluation of Quality Control and Laboratory Management in Microbiology Laboratories in Sudan Comparing to the International Standards

Abstract

Background: The microbiology laboratory plays an important role in isolation, characteristic of microorganisms, clinical function {infection control}, epidemiological, surveillance, prevention, finding the route of transmission of infective microbe, and participate in the antimicrobial stewardship programs (1). Hence the basic rights of laboratory test reports are the reliability, accuracy, timeliness, and in form that can be sense (2), so, the quality management system model is remarkable to attaining excellence in laboratories practices and improving quality (3). Objectives: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the quality control and laboratory management of microbiology laboratories in Sudan comparing to the international standards. Materials and Methods: The type of this study is non interventional study, observational research method, cross sectional study was carried out between 2014 to 2023 structured questionnaire distributed to the seven microbiology laboratories in Khartoum state and Aljazeera state in Sudan to evaluate the quality control and the laboratory management checking and assessing the facility setup, personnel, laboratory facilities, environment and biosafety, equipment, quality system, identification methods, Antibiotic susceptibility testing methods of these microbiology laboratories. SPSS statistical system and Microsoft excel were utilized for data analysis. Results: The results proposed in Tables and demonstrated that most of the questionnaires respondents about the procedures for the tests and methods done in the laboratory standardized in accordance with the ISO 15189:2012 their number was 81 with percentage (64.3%) there were 45with percentage (35.7%) was not complying the standards.Conclusion: The study revealed that all these microbiology laboratories have moderate performance quality control and laboratory management standards and their needs to continuous improvement programs to provide better patient care.