TABLE 2.

Institutional mentorship process.

Area of support	Description of activity
Initial engagement and action plan	Top-level managers of twinned laboratories met, agreed on the laboratory twinning concept, and identified individuals to serve as focal points. During this initial meeting, project timelines were established and a list of deliverables was developed.
Document review and equipment assessment	Research laboratory staff worked with SLMTA laboratory staff to review existing management, policy and standard operating procedure documents and developed new documents as needed. An equipment master list was prepared for each site.
Training and on-site mentorship	Facility-based trainings on good clinical laboratory practices, method validation, and internal audit were conducted by the research laboratory staff. On-site targeted mentorship was provided to all SLMTA laboratory staff, based on non-conformance findings from baseline audit. Specific mentorship subjects included document and records management, equipment management, and information management. On-site mentorship also included hands-on training in technical processes, biosafety, fire safety, and laboratory audits.
Exchange visits	Exchange visits were conducted in which SLMTA laboratory personnel visited the research laboratories for periods averaging five days to address needs identified in the baseline audits. All the mentee laboratory staff took turns visiting the research laboratory so as not to interrupt testing services at the laboratory. During these visits, the visiting staff worked at the accredited laboratory under the supervision of the quality assurance staff to gain hands-on experience in the following activities: organizing laboratory facilities, designing personnel files, developing competency assessment tools, performing internal quality control and monitoring Levey-Jennings charts, running and troubleshooting external quality assessments, operating the electronic laboratory information system, using safety signage, and managing laboratory waste. On reciprocal visits, the research laboratory quality assurance staff assisted in implementation of best practices at the SLMTA laboratory.
Performance review	Each pair of twinned laboratories held weekly meetings to review progress on the various laboratory improvement projects and to facilitate communication with hospital upper management. These meetings were co-chaired by the mentor and SLMTA laboratory manager and attended by all laboratory staff from the mentee laboratory.

SLMTA, Strengthening Laboratory Management Toward Accreditation.