Healthcare professionals perspectives on point-of-care testing quality and access in Australian healthcare services: a qualitative study

Objectives To explore healthcare professionals’ perceptions and experiences with point-of-care testing (PoCT) implementation within Australia’s healthcare system and identify potential strategies for effective governance and improvements to regulation and guidelines that facilitate coordinated integration of quality PoCT into healthcare systems. Design A descriptive qualitative study with thematic analysis with codes derived inductively from the transcriptions and a structured framework analysis using the six building blocks of the WHO Health Systems Framework exploring barriers and enablers to PoCT implementation.

Participants Healthcare workers with patient care responsibilities and healthcare administrators with oversight or regulatory responsibility for a service. 18 participants were interviewed with four from hospitals, four from primary care, three from community care, three from pathology laboratories, two from emergency care and two from pharmacy settings.

Results Healthcare professionals’ perspectives on PoCT implementation were grouped into three main themes: (1) community-centric pathology testing, (2) connectivity and continuity of care and (3) quality and governance. Participants identified insufficient health system financing and health information systems as significant barriers to PoCT implementation.