Background: Medical laboratory diagnosis is a critical component of patient management in the healthcare setup. Despite the availability of laboratory tests, clinicians may not utilise them to make clinical decisions. We investigated utilsation of laboratory tests for patient management among clinicians at Ndola Teaching Hospital (NTH) and Arthur Davison Children’s Hospital (ADCH), two large referral hospitals in the Copperbelt Province, Ndola, Zambia. Method: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study among clinicians. The study deployed self-administered questionnaires to evaluate clinicians’ utilisation, querying and confidence in laboratory results. Additional data on demographics and possible laboratory improvements were also obtained. Data were entered in Microsoft excel and exported to SPSS version 16 for statistical analysis. Results: Of the 80 clinicians interviewed, 96.2% (77) reported using laboratory tests and their results in patient management. 77.5% (62) of the clinicians indicated they always used laboratory results to influence their patient management decisions. Of the selected laboratory tests, clinicians were more confident in using haemoglobin test results (91.2%). There was no statistically significant association between the clinicians’ gender or qualification and use of test results in patient management. Conclusion: Our findings show that despite the majority querying laboratory results, most of the clinicians use laboratory results for patient management. There is need for interactions between the laboratory and clinical area to assure clinician’s confidence in laboratory results.
| Published in | American Journal of Laboratory Medicine (Volume 5, Issue 5) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ajlm.20200505.13 |
| Page(s) | 144-149 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group |
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APA Style
Sabe Mwape, Victor Daka, Scott Kaba Matafwali, Kapambwe Mwape, Jay Sikalima, et al. (2020). Utilisation of Laboratory Test Results for Patient Management by Clinicians at Two Large Referral Hospitals in Zambia. American Journal of Laboratory Medicine, 5(5), 144-149. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajlm.20200505.13
ACS Style
Sabe Mwape; Victor Daka; Scott Kaba Matafwali; Kapambwe Mwape; Jay Sikalima, et al. Utilisation of Laboratory Test Results for Patient Management by Clinicians at Two Large Referral Hospitals in Zambia. Am. J. Lab. Med. 2020, 5(5), 144-149. doi: 10.11648/j.ajlm.20200505.13
AMA Style
Sabe Mwape, Victor Daka, Scott Kaba Matafwali, Kapambwe Mwape, Jay Sikalima, et al. Utilisation of Laboratory Test Results for Patient Management by Clinicians at Two Large Referral Hospitals in Zambia. Am J Lab Med. 2020;5(5):144-149. doi: 10.11648/j.ajlm.20200505.13
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author = {Sabe Mwape and Victor Daka and Scott Kaba Matafwali and Kapambwe Mwape and Jay Sikalima and Pipina Anna Vlahakis and Memory Chirambo Kalolekesha and Namaunga Kasumu Chisompola and Victor Chalwe},
title = {Utilisation of Laboratory Test Results for Patient Management by Clinicians at Two Large Referral Hospitals in Zambia},
journal = {American Journal of Laboratory Medicine},
volume = {5},
number = {5},
pages = {144-149},
doi = {10.11648/j.ajlm.20200505.13},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajlm.20200505.13},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajlm.20200505.13},
abstract = {Background: Medical laboratory diagnosis is a critical component of patient management in the healthcare setup. Despite the availability of laboratory tests, clinicians may not utilise them to make clinical decisions. We investigated utilsation of laboratory tests for patient management among clinicians at Ndola Teaching Hospital (NTH) and Arthur Davison Children’s Hospital (ADCH), two large referral hospitals in the Copperbelt Province, Ndola, Zambia. Method: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study among clinicians. The study deployed self-administered questionnaires to evaluate clinicians’ utilisation, querying and confidence in laboratory results. Additional data on demographics and possible laboratory improvements were also obtained. Data were entered in Microsoft excel and exported to SPSS version 16 for statistical analysis. Results: Of the 80 clinicians interviewed, 96.2% (77) reported using laboratory tests and their results in patient management. 77.5% (62) of the clinicians indicated they always used laboratory results to influence their patient management decisions. Of the selected laboratory tests, clinicians were more confident in using haemoglobin test results (91.2%). There was no statistically significant association between the clinicians’ gender or qualification and use of test results in patient management. Conclusion: Our findings show that despite the majority querying laboratory results, most of the clinicians use laboratory results for patient management. There is need for interactions between the laboratory and clinical area to assure clinician’s confidence in laboratory results.},
year = {2020}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Utilisation of Laboratory Test Results for Patient Management by Clinicians at Two Large Referral Hospitals in Zambia AU - Sabe Mwape AU - Victor Daka AU - Scott Kaba Matafwali AU - Kapambwe Mwape AU - Jay Sikalima AU - Pipina Anna Vlahakis AU - Memory Chirambo Kalolekesha AU - Namaunga Kasumu Chisompola AU - Victor Chalwe Y1 - 2020/10/14 PY - 2020 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajlm.20200505.13 DO - 10.11648/j.ajlm.20200505.13 T2 - American Journal of Laboratory Medicine JF - American Journal of Laboratory Medicine JO - American Journal of Laboratory Medicine SP - 144 EP - 149 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-386X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajlm.20200505.13 AB - Background: Medical laboratory diagnosis is a critical component of patient management in the healthcare setup. Despite the availability of laboratory tests, clinicians may not utilise them to make clinical decisions. We investigated utilsation of laboratory tests for patient management among clinicians at Ndola Teaching Hospital (NTH) and Arthur Davison Children’s Hospital (ADCH), two large referral hospitals in the Copperbelt Province, Ndola, Zambia. Method: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study among clinicians. The study deployed self-administered questionnaires to evaluate clinicians’ utilisation, querying and confidence in laboratory results. Additional data on demographics and possible laboratory improvements were also obtained. Data were entered in Microsoft excel and exported to SPSS version 16 for statistical analysis. Results: Of the 80 clinicians interviewed, 96.2% (77) reported using laboratory tests and their results in patient management. 77.5% (62) of the clinicians indicated they always used laboratory results to influence their patient management decisions. Of the selected laboratory tests, clinicians were more confident in using haemoglobin test results (91.2%). There was no statistically significant association between the clinicians’ gender or qualification and use of test results in patient management. Conclusion: Our findings show that despite the majority querying laboratory results, most of the clinicians use laboratory results for patient management. There is need for interactions between the laboratory and clinical area to assure clinician’s confidence in laboratory results. VL - 5 IS - 5 ER -
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