Situation of laboratory service and instruments in Thailand: a descriptive study from questionnaires.

Laboratory instruments are one of the main items in laboratory investment. To establish data for the situation of laboratory service and instruments in Thailand, questionnaires were randomly sent to one hundred and twenty laboratories. Sixty-three filled questionnaires from eleven university and affiliated hospitals, thirty-four government hospitals, and eighteen private hospital laboratories were sent back to the authors to be analyzed. Only the number of samples and instruments used during office hours were analyzed in this study by descriptive method. From the data it was found that the average number of personnel and tests of the university and affiliated hospital laboratories was the highest. To analyze the efficiency of the instruments used in the laboratories, the authors compared the average service number of samples or tests to the average number of samples or tests that was calculated from the instruments. The ratio of the average number of samples or tests that were calculated from the instruments and the average service number of samples or tests for chemistry and CBC were 2.13, 3.41, 5.24 and 2.33, 2.76, 3.71 in university and affiliated hospital laboratories, government hospital laboratories, and the private hospital laboratories, respectively. From the data, it was concluded that the instrument situation in laboratories of the university and affiliated hospitals was more appropriate than government hospital and private hospital laboratories. To improve the efficiency of using laboratory instruments, more concern must be given to the management of laboratory instruments and cooperation between hospitals could increase the efficiency of the instrument investment.