Professional Management of Point-of-Care Testing Devices in Primary Health Care Centres in Kano State

Point-of-care testing devices for blood glucose, haemoglobin, malaria, and HIV are deployed across primary health care centres in Kano State as a core component of basic diagnostic services, but the professional management of these devices including calibration, quality control, and staff training is inconsistently implemented. This study investigates the professional management practices of point-of-care testing devices across forty primary health care centres in Kano Municipal, Nassarawa, and Ungogo LGAs. A structured observational checklist and structured interviews with primary care health workers responsible for device operation were the primary data collection instruments. Management domains assessed include device calibration frequency, internal quality control use, reagent and consumable expiry monitoring, device malfunction reporting procedures, and operator training documentation. Concurrent parallel testing of a subset of glucose and haemoglobin results against reference laboratory values at a secondary facility provided an objective performance assessment. Results show that calibration documentation was present in only 27 percent of visited centres. Internal quality control materials were absent in 58 percent of centres using glucometers. External control testing was practiced in 18 percent of facilities. Parallel testing revealed clinically significant discordance between point-of-care glucose and reference laboratory glucose in 23 percent of paired samples, predominantly in devices with expired strips. Operator training documentation was absent in 72 percent of facilities. The study recommends a structured point-of-care quality management programme and periodic technical supervision visits from the Kano State Ministry of Health. Keywords: point-of-care testing, quality management, primary health care, Kano State, diagnostics.