Quality laboratory services in County health facilities form part of the health system continuum. This component of healthcare requires intentional investment with the goal of guaranteeing patients’ accessibility and availability of the said services. Where laboratory services are offered at the highest standards, patients do not need to travel to other Counties and countries to access the services thereby reducing stress and expenses and enabling early disease detection and treatment for better health outcomes.
Tharaka Nithi County, formerly part of the Eastern Province, spans an area of 2,609 km² and has a population of 393,177. The County Health team realized that patients often leave the County for laboratory services, including cancer screening, seeking these outside Kenya or in Nairobi. Chuka County Referral Hospital faced challenges of congestion and staffing shortages in the laboratory department. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital operated with only 16 staff members. The high workload and congestion led to all available clinical officers contracting COVID-19. The pharmacies faced challenges such as stock shortages, lengthy queues and manual registration processes.
To address these challenges, the Tharaka Nithi County Government opted to digitize laboratory systems with a software called Attune (provided by Metropolis), integrating ticketing with generation of lab test results. This streamlined the process for patients, allowing them to transition seamlessly from ticketing to testing and access their results digitally without delays. Additionally, this initiative enabled the County to eliminate loopholes that had previously resulted in unpaid tests. The County has also incorporated Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) into its health systems, mapping all households to identify disease prevalence by location, enabling timely and effective interventions.
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