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Submitted on 14 October 2014

Laboratory services are an essential component in the diagnosis and treatment of persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus, malaria, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Presently, laboratory infrastructure and test quality for all types of clinical laboratories remains weak. Quality laboratory service is useful for increased disease detection, effective patient management, and rational drug use.

The Ministry of Health has recognized the need to expand and develop quality laboratory services as part of grater framework of health system strengthening within resource-limited settings. As part of the effort to strengthen service delivery, Ministry of Health is working towards instituting laboratory quality management system at all laboratory levels. To move this agenda forward, implementing partners have been tasked to ensure that laboratory staff receive laboratory quality management systems training.

International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) defined laboratory quality management system (LQMS) as coordinated activities to direct and control the organization in regard to ensuring quality. The ISO 15189 further uses the laboratory quality management system as decoding the ISO 15189 standard.

In 2010 the Ministry of Health, Uganda adopted the Laboratory Quality Management System to improve the quality of laboratory services towards accreditation through the WHO (AFRO) step by step quality improvement. Hence Laboratory Quality Management System became a principle training package for peripheral laboratory quality improvement and complementary for the higher laboratories that were earmarked for strengthening laboratory Management towards Accreditation (SLMTA) program