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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke in Gweru
The roll out of the laboratory information management services is being speeded up in public health facilities across the country by the Government, resulting in the streamlining of lab processes, improving efficiency, and ultimately enhancing patient care in line with the National Health Strategy.
The system, which was introduced between 2013 and 2017, has replaced the paper-based systems that laboratories relied on for managing samples, test results, and inventory.
The old system often led to delays, errors, and difficulties in tracking patient data.
The new system is coming in to complement the integrated specimen transport system that the Government is also rolling out to ensure reliable movement of samples from health facilities to laboratories across the country.
Speaking during a familiarisation tour of the integrated specimen transport programme in Gweru, Midlands, provincial chief scientist Mr Evidence Makombe said the system allowed samples to be tracked from the time they were collected until the results arrived.
“Once we receive the samples, we can run them the same day without waiting for registration, because the hubs would have taken care of that.
With an electronic system, it then becomes easy for us to prepare reports and to determine the number of tests that we conduct in a particular month. It has also increased issues of data security.
“Then instead of using the manual systems where we have huge piles of registers, we just need the computer and it will keep all our information for us,” he said.
Mr Makombe said initially Gweru Provincial Hospital was the only facility in the province with the laboratory information management service and this meant all samples would be registered there increasing the turnaround time for results.
“Every hub within the province now has a stand alone management system where they register their samples and then after registering them, they prepare a shipment manifest which accompanies the samples to the provincial lab.
“We will then have a record of the referred symbols within our own system so there is no need to be sending a huge pile of paperwork because the information is sent within the system.
“When we receive the samples, the system will be notified that the samples have been received and after testing, we publish the results and they become available at the hubs who then print,” he said.
To make it even faster, patients can be alerted via text messages on their phones once their results become available, ensuring that they only travel to the health facility once they are aware of the availability of their results.
The adoption of the laboratory information management services aligns with the national health strategy, which prioritises improving efficiency and quality of care within the public health system.
National integrated specimen transport coordinator Mr Agrippa Mutambara said the system had streamlined workflows leading to quicker turnaround times for test results, allowing for quicker diagnosis and treatment initiation.
“This is a modern technology communication network where the lab sets up a digital, computerised system and the software is developed with all testing parameters put in there including all patient data. That system is not only for the lab, it is meant to then even communicate with the originators of the specimens, which is the clinicians,” he said.
So far, more than 80 percent of all facilities in the country had been connected to the system making the delivery of lab results more effective.
Currently, the HIV and TB platforms are fully developed while work on extending the system to other testing platforms is underway to cover all tests.
Mr Mutambara said the system was connected to the integrated specimen transport programme and had ensured that all samples transported to the laboratories were processed on time.
The transport system is being implemented in over 2 000 facilities by the Ministry of Health and Child Care through the Biomedical Research and Training Institution with financing from the Global Fund, through the United Nations Development Programme.
The programme seeks to address the transport gap for specimens through a well-coordinated transportation system.
“We bring the samples physically, but when results go, they are going remotely, which means we are shortening the turnaround time.
“So we find that here at Gweru Provincial Hospital, we have a functional laboratory integrated management service where the provincial hospital is connected to each of the eight district hospitals.
“What that means is all samples that originate from the district hospitals can be remotely entered.
“When the samples arrive, Gweru already knows that they’re expecting so much of the samples and they are tested, results come out and are fed into the same system. The districts access their results without even visiting Gweru,” he said.
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