In a critical move to improve patient outcomes and save lives, the Urban TB LON II Project, implemented by REACH Ethiopia in collaboration with the Addis Ababa City Administration Health Bureau, conducted a Bi-annual GeneXpert Catchment Area Review Meeting on October 7, 2025.
This vital event gatherd together laboratory professionals from public and private GeneXpert sites, along with representatives from their referring health facilities across Addis Ababa, for an in-depth review of the TB diagnostic network.
Identifying Bottlenecks to Quality Care
The primary focus of the meeting was to identify and dismantle barriers to timely, high-quality TB care. Selected health facilities presented their performance, highlighting key quality-of-care challenges that slow down the diagnostic process.
These critical bottlenecks included:
- Delays in specimen transportation.
- High error rates in testing.
- Inefficiencies in patient result delivery that failed to meet the expected Turnaround Time (TAT).
Committing to Continuous Improvement
The session successfully addressed these systemic issues by developing a Joint Action Plan outlining specific tasks for improvement. This plan promotes continuous quality improvement and clear accountability among all stakeholders—from specimen collection to final result delivery.
By strengthening the TB diagnostic network’s accuracy, reliability, and timeliness, the project ensures earlier detection and prompt treatment initiation. This decisive action is critical for preventing further TB transmission and is essential to ultimately saving more lives across the city.
