Laboratory Services Quality Improvement

What We Do › Infectious Diseases › Laboratory Services Quality Improvement

A well equipped and adequately staffed microbiology laboratory utilized appropriately by clinicians is a key component of any modern infection control program as well as a basis for evidence-based clinical management of infectious diseases.

With the goal of improving quality of surveillance and patient care practices, AIHA and our partners developed a program for continuous quality improvement in hospital microbiology laboratories throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This program includes the creation of internal quality control systems for the media, reagents, and test performance; the introduction of modern methods of antimicrobial susceptibility testing; and the establishment of an antimicrobial surveillance network using WHO’s WHONET information system.

This program serves as the basis for more recent work in laboratory services quality improvement, including renovation of lab facilities and advanced training for technicians carried out through AIHA’s USAID-funded Strengthening Tuberculosis Control in Moldova Project and a partnership to build lab capacity in Tanzania funded through the HIV/AIDS Twinning Center in support of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

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