{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,30]],"date-time":"2025-12-30T11:06:40Z","timestamp":1767092800997,"version":"3.41.0"},"reference-count":17,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,13]],"date-time":"2025-06-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1749772800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec008\">\n<jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Delivery delays of laboratory results can result in death and\/or economic loss to both the patient and the health system. Data is limited regarding turnaround time for tuberculosis testing in Cameroon. We evaluated intra- turnaround time in tuberculosis diagnosis, identified root causes, and brainstormed solutions to improve patient satisfaction.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec009\">\n<jats:title>Materials and methods<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>In this cross-sectional descriptive study, turnaround time for the pre-analytic phase was set at 3 hours, the analytic phase at 11 hours, and the post-analytic phase at 10 hours. The overall turnaround time was 24 hours. We used the Fishbone method of problem analysis involving the personnel of the Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory-Douala, to identify root causes. We brainstormed using the \u201cWhys\u201d causes of turnaround time failure during the process of tuberculosis diagnosis by GeneXpert MTB\/RIF<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec010\">\n<jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>We analyzed samples from 526 clients. The median turnaround time was 45 (Range: 2-120) hours. A total of 216(41.1%) clients had a turnaround time failure. The turnaround time failures in the pre-analytic, analytic, and post-analytics phases were 64(29.6%), 128(59.3%), and 12(11.1%) respectively. Overall, 19 root causes of turnaround time failure were identified and grouped into six categories, namely: equipment, administration, technical-staff, environment, material, and method. Equipment maintenance (defective or non-calibrated modules) was the critical cause of turnaround time failures accounting for 86 (39.8%) of the overall turnaround time failure.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec011\">\n<jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>turnaround time in tuberculosis diagnosis is longer than expected, retarding patient care management. Focusing on equipment maintenance enhances the intra-laboratory testing process, thus improving overall patient satisfaction. The need for further studies to incorporate the extra-laboratory turnaround time in assessing the overall turnaround time is imperative.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0323917","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,13]],"date-time":"2025-06-13T17:35:49Z","timestamp":1749836149000},"page":"e0323917","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Evaluating turnaround time to improve clients\u2019 satisfaction in the tuberculosis reference laboratory in Douala"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0593-6831","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Teyim Pride","family":"Mbuh","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anya Priscilla","family":"Amveilla","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Patricia","family":"Mendjime","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Val\u00e9rie Flore","family":"Donkeng Donfack","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mohamed","family":"Youssouf Mfouapon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hamada","family":"Beloko","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bisso Ngono","family":"Annie Prudence","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Esso","family":"Linda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Georges Alain","family":"Etoundi Mballa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0323917.ref001","first-page":"1","author":"I. 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