Sentinel laboratory compliance with best practices in Burkina Faso's antimicrobial resistance surveillance network.

Background: Standardising procedures is the best way to harmonise and strengthen the quality of laboratory-based antimicrobial resistance surveillance. Since 2018, Burkina Faso has developed and disseminated the national manual of procedures for performing antibiotic susceptibility tests in sentinel laboratories within its national antimicrobial resistance surveillance network. Objective: Our study aimed to assess these sentinel laboratories' compliance with good practices for antibiotics susceptibility tests. Methods: Four teams evaluated the antimicrobial resistance sentinel sites laboratories throughout Burkina Faso from 19 to 28 September 2022. Eighteen out of 19 sentinel laboratories were evaluated. A four-member technical committee designed and validated the evaluation tool composed of three Microsoft Excel sheets. The evaluation emphasised quality controls for culture media, antibiotic discs and compliance with antimicrobial susceptibility testing procedures by the laboratories. Excel software was used for data recording and graphs and table design. The free R software version 4.2.0 was used for descriptive statistics. An overall score below 80% was considered noncompliance. Results: Most (83.33%) of the sentinel laboratories conducted at least one quality control activity for culture media, and 66.67% conducted at least one quality control activity for antibiotic discs. Over three-quarters (76.47%) of the laboratories were more than 80% compliant with the modified Kirby Bauer antimicrobial susceptibility testing method. Conclusion: The evaluation revealed the noncompliance of sentinel laboratories with the national procedure manual, particularly in the quality control component. What this study adds: This study has provided baseline data on the sentinel laboratories' compliance with the national antimicrobial susceptibility testing procedures manual, particularly in areas performing quality control checks or meeting quality indicators for culture media and antibiotic discs.

Impact of mentoring on the implementation of the quality management system in clinical laboratories in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

In Burkina Faso, the implementation of the quality management system remains weak in diagnostic laboratories. Integrating mentoring into the life of clinical diagnostic laboratories, a qualified mentor is essential for quality system control. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the mentoring process on quality improvement. Mentoring process was implemented at nine laboratories. The process consisted of a one-week mentor stay in the laboratory as one visit, with four in total. The SLIPTA checklist was used as a measurement tool. Two audits were performed (before and after the implementation of the mentoring process. The audit data were analyzed to estimate the effect of mentoring on quality improvement. A score difference of 24.55% was found significant between the two audits (paired Student's t-test p-value = 0.0002). The variables non-conformities, corrective/preventive actions, and facilities/safety have factored more than eight points between the two audits. However, the management/customer service and information one have only slightly increased (2.27 and 0.63, respectively). Mentoring has improved the quality management system in laboratories. However, some points of the process need to be improved to bring these laboratories toward international accreditation.