Abstract
The quality and primary care standard system (PCS) is consisted of eight main topics with a checklist of 40 items. PCS has been used as guidelines to implement and organize service systems and develop the laboratory work of the primary care units to meet quality and service standards. This study aimed at collecting and analyzing data in order to sort the frequency of unmet quality requirements of 7,452 primary care units (80.89%) assessed by network laboratories in fiscal years 2014 – 2016. The highest nonconforming requirement was Item 3 concerning the unavailability/insufficiency of materials, solutions and instruments at primary care units (such as blood glucose test with glucometer, pregnancy test, urine strip test for glucose and protein and hematocrit). The findings of this study revealed areas for improving quality and primary care standards. In addition, involved agencies should use the data to formulate policies and guidelines for improving quality and service standards focusing on the parts that the primary care units were unable to accomplish in order to improve the quality of the laboratory services at the primary care units. This will result in a decrease of service congestion at major hospitals in addition to promoting efficient treatment, prevention and disease control.
