สถานการณ์การรับรองคุณภาพห้องปฏิบัติการด้านอาชีวอนามัย และสิ่งบแวดล้อมในประเทศไทย พ.ศ. 2543 / สวรรยา จันทูตานนท์ = Situation of occupational health and environmental health laboratory accreditation in Thailand, 2000 / Swanya Chuntutanon
This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study. The objectives were to study situation analyses of occupational health and environmental health laboratory accreditation in Thailand, factors related to laboratory accreditation and the strengths and weaknesses of laboratory accreditation. Data was collected between May 2000 and January 2001. Questionnaires were sent to chiefs of 415 occupational health or environmental health laboratory units in Thailand. Response rate was 54.5 percents. The other qualitative component was semi-structured in-depth interview with 6 accredited laboratory unit's chiefs. Statistics used were percents, means, standard deviation, Chi-square test and Wilcoxon Rank Sum test. Forty two point nine percents of the returned questionnaires were from occupational health and environmental health laboratories. The environmental health laboratories were the majority (45.1 percents). The second was occupational health laboratory units (19.1 percents). The private sector was 53.4 percents and most of laboratory units were located outside hospital (71.9 percents). Most of the sites were in BKK and its vicinity (42.7 percents). The majority of personnel had a bachelor degree. There were 102 environmental health laboratories, most of them were private and located outside hospitals. Twelve units of environmental health laboratories were accredited (11.8 percents) and conducted ISO 9002 system. There were 45 occupational health laboratories, most of them were under the Ministry of Public Health. Occupational health laboratories were accredited 12 units (26.7 percents) and conducted ISO 9002 system. There were 31 occupational and environmental health laboratories, most of them were under the Ministry of Public Health and located outside hospitals. Occupational and environmental health laboratories were accredited 8 units (25.8 percents) and conducted ISO/IEC Guide 25/17025. Factors affecting laboratory accreditation were number of total personnel, number of personnel with bachelor degree and numberof personnel with below bachelor degree (p<0.001). Semi-structured in-depth interview revealed that the important factors of laboratory accreditation were awareness of laboratory personnel, support from top management of those organizations and adequate budgets. This study might be useful as part of the input of guideline for supporting accreditation of laboratory units.