Implementation research: a mentoring programme to improve laboratory quality in Cambodia.

Objective: To implement a mentored laboratory quality stepwise implementation (LQSI) programme to strengthen the quality and capacity of Cambodian hospital laboratories.

Methods: We recruited four laboratory technicians to be mentors and trained them in mentoring skills, laboratory quality management practices and international standard organization (ISO) 15189 requirements for medical laboratories. Separately, we trained staff from 12 referral hospital laboratories in laboratory quality management systems followed by tri-weekly in-person mentoring on quality management systems implementation using the LQSI tool, which is aligned with the ISO 15189 standard.