Background: Despite
Kenya 's roll-out of the Strengthening
Laboratory Management Towards
Accreditation programme in 2010, most
laboratories had not made significant or tangible improvements towards
accreditation by 2016. In April 2016, the
University of
Maryland ,
Baltimore enrolled 27 facilities in the standard Strengthening
Laboratory Management Towards
Accreditation programme.
Objective: This study aimed to describe and evaluate the implementation of an intensified
mentorship strategy on
laboratory accreditation .
Methods: In October 2017, the
University of
Maryland ,
Baltimore implemented intensive
mentorship in 27
hospital laboratories in Nairobi, Kiambu, Meru, Embu, Muranga, Nyeri, Laikipia, Nyandarua, Tharaka-Nithi, and Kirinyaga counties in
Kenya .
Laboratories were paired with competent
mentors whose skills were matched to facility gaps. Baseline and follow-up assessments were done between April 2016 and March 2019 using the
World Health Organization 's Stepwise
Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards
Accreditation Checklist and overall scores of the 12 Quality System Essentials and star ratings (from zero to five, based on scores) used to evaluate the
effectiveness of the intensified
mentorship .
Results: In September 2017, 14
laboratories scored zero stars, three scored one star, eight scored two stars, one scored three stars, and one
laboratory was accredited. By March 2019, eight
laboratories were accredited, five scored four stars, 10 scored three stars, three scored two stars, and only one scored one star. The average score change with the intensified approach was 81.5 versus 53.9 for the standard approach.
Conclusion: The intensified
mentorship strategy resulted in fast-tracked progress towards
laboratory accreditation and can be adopted in
similar resource-limited settings