AGAINST ALL ODDS
Chief Executive Officer at CT Diagnostics, Caroline Tshire Kekana believes that passion instead of mere qualifications, is the foundation for any business to prosper.
She is in a male-dominated profession of pathology and is one of the few women to own medical laboratories in the country.
Kekana is an extensively experienced Motswana woman in the field of pathology. She opened her laboratory, CT Diagnostics, after 34 years in government employ. After years in the medical field, she identified several gaps and chose to be part of the solution.
'I have identified a gap within the industry pertaining to long turnaround times, low-quality service, and poor implementation of procedures by my competitors, and decided to do something about it,' she says.
Kekana now operates a customer-centric lab, driven by the quest to meet customer needs at all times.
'I have over 34 years of vast experience in the medical laboratory technology quality standards and COHASASA standards, and this has given me the confidence to start my own laboratory,' she says.
She worked for Government as a lab assistant and technician and progressed to laboratory manager, where she was part of the development, implementation, and monitoring of the quality management system in the laboratory including COHASASA standard adherence in the hospital.
She observes that quality in their field has been diminishing. She employs close to 30 people now but started with only four in 2015.
CT Diagnostics has branches in Gaborone, Maun, and Kasane and intends to expand to other parts of Botswana and the SADC region. Kekana retired shortly after being promoted to Lab Manager for Central Medical Stores to start her own operation. This was a risk she was willing to take, because of self-belief.
'In the past five years, CT Diagnostics has seen a vast growth from five employees to now employing over 25 qualified personnel, 98 percent being Batswana,' she says.
Kekana is in her early 60s and encourages young people to be more practical to gain experience in the fields they want to excel in.
CT Diagnostics services include Microbiology, hematology, mobile blood collection, Covid RDT, and PCR Testing, CD4 Count and Viral load, Drug Abuse testing, outreach and wellness services, food handlers exams, Antenatal Profile Medical Exams, histology, Routine Clinical, and Chemistry.
She lives by the motto, 'people have to know your vision to support your passion.'