Ethiopian National Laboratory Logistics System: Overcoming Despair through a Systematic Response

Reliable laboratory diagnostic services are critical to the success of comprehensive health programs. A full array of clinical chemistry, hematology tests, and CD4 must be available to diagnose, treat and monitor patients in HIV/AIDS programs. The Ethiopian laboratory logistics system was unorganized and hampered by several systems challenges causing constant stockouts of critical items that impeded quality care for patients.

More than 150,000 people are on treatment for HIV/AIDS. Yet, the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI) chose to tackle head-on the laboratory commodities supply chain challenges. • Close collaboration with partners, regional awareness workshops for public health sector leaders, to generate buy-in and support of the initiative • Regular mentoring of laboratory staff to ensure data submission quality • Technical assistance to develop and implement standardized reporting formats to capture data about inventory and orders from health facilities, including a standard operating procedure manual to simplify and standardize the performance of the Laboratory Logistics Management Information System (LMIS) Prior to system implementation stockouts were frequent and hospitals waited 2-3 months or longer for critical commodities like CD4 reagents. The logistics system is now positively impacting more than 155,000 patients. The laboratory commodities distribution system is now ready for integration with other HIV/AIDS commodities. Supported by policy level efforts to address supply chain challenges as well as coordinated partner activities, strong laboratory logistics systems and supply chain solutions can be implemented in resource poor settings and used as a model for all health commodities.