- Title
- Clinicians knowledge and perceptions of point of care testing (poct) in selected hospitals in the free state, South Africa
- Creator
- Watkins, Edgar Jeffrey
- Subject
- Point-of-care testing
- Subject
- Preventive health services
- Subject
- Medical technology
- Date
- 2022-08
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27264
- Identifier
- vital:66487
- Description
- Point of care testing (POCT) improves access and equity to health diagnostic services in resource-limited settings like South Africa, where some health facilities do not have on-site laboratories. With recent technological advancements, most traditional laboratory tests can now be conducted on-site at primary health clinics (PHC), hospital wards and clinics. One advantage of the POCT device is that it can be used by a non-medical laboratory expert at the patient’s bed side during hospitalizations or near the patient in the doctor’s consultation rooms. This results in a shorter turnaround time for the availability of test results when compared to that from a specimen sent to a traditional clinical laboratory. Despite the benefits of POCT, many clinicians (doctors and nurses) avoid utilizing POCT for quality assurance reasons. Clinicians believe the results from a POCT device may not be as reliable as the results from tests performed by a medical laboratory scientist in the traditional clinical laboratory. This study used a concurrent mixed method research design to explore clinicians' POCT knowledge and attitudes in a subset of hospitals in the Free state of South Africa. The study population comprised of consenting medical professionals from the ten (10) selected Free State district hospitals (study sites). The findings demonstrated that hospitals in urban areas have easier access to laboratory services. There were two (2) urban study sites that had on-site laboratories which achieved faster Turn-Around-Time (TAT). The participants indicate that they are aware of POCT and routinely use it, but there are far fewer POCT tests available than laboratory tests. When diagnostic options are scarce, point-of-care testing (POCT) can provide a more accurate diagnosis than traditional methods. The improved health care provision and reduced incidence of health complications is the end result. According to the participants, having access to POCT diagnostic services has shown promise in addressing challenges that sometimes present with laboratory-based methods, particularly in settings with limited access to hospitals or when laboratories cannot be accessed. Further, clinicians argue that errors in the usage of POCT may occur due to the quality of these POCTs and improper documentation of the test results by the clinicians. Therefore, poor utilization of POCT by clinicians can be improved if implemented with pre-set strict selection goals and processes to ensure that the right POCT is selected for the right purpose that would reduce resource expenditure by the hospitals and improve patient experiences and health outcomes.
- Description
- Thesis (MPH) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 2022
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (133 leaves)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Health Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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UFH Department of Public Health
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | WATKINS EJ 201928122 Mini Dissertation.pdf | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |