Introduction: Provision of quality laboratory services in Kenya has been a key part of national health care strategy. The Kenya Medical Laboratory Technicians and Technologist Board which is mandated with supervision and surveillance to ensure quality services are offered across all laboratories in the country has little reliable information on the perception of patients. This study addressed the gap by collecting information on how patients perceived the services they receive in various laboratories in the country.

Method: A total of 416 participants were enrolled in the study. An observational and descriptive approach was utilized in a cross-sectional design. Laboratories in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nyeri were sampled and patients in these facilities interviewed on what they thought about the quality of services they were accorded in the laboratories.

Results: According to the participants interviewed, private low class laboratories provided the best quality of services to the satisfaction of the patients p < 0.039, (p=0.05). Besides the good quality of services that are provided by health professionals in the laboratories, it was also found out that most laboratories in the country lack proper quality management systems in place.

Conclusion: In order to ensure that the quality services provided in laboratories is maintained and improvements made on any shortcomings, it was highly recommended that all laboratories embrace installation of quality management systems to monitor internal and external quality assays of results.

Keywords: Quality laboratory service, patient perception, quality management system.

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Wachuka Gathigia Njoroge

Kenyatta University, School of Medicine, Nairobi, Kenya

P.O Box 43844 – 00100, Nairobi, Kenya