Patients and Clinicians Satisfaction with Clinical Laboratory Services at a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Clinical laboratories are an essential part of the healthcare system providing vital information required for patient’s care. As the importance of monitoring the satisfaction status is becoming necessary and no data regarding the same is available in this region, so present study was designed to implement it in the institution. Aim: To estimate the clinicians and patients satisfaction status with the services provided by the Central Clinical Laboratory, Karpaga Vinayaga Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre (CCL-KIMS and RC) in Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu, India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Central Clinical laboratory, Karpaga Vinayaga Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, a tertiary care Medical college hospital in Kanchipuram district, Tamil Nadu, India between April 2019 to December 2019 in three phases including a total of 150 clinicians and 150 patients. The patient’s satisfaction status was assessed using questionnaires by the investigator. Self-administered structured questionnaire was used for determining the clinician’s satisfaction status. Likert scale was used and the mean score of satisfaction for each, patients and clinician was calculated. Data entry and analysis was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 25.0 V software. Chi-square test was used to find out the association between satisfaction status and the different attributes. Spearman’s correlation was performed to assess the relationship between the satisfaction status and the different phases of the study. Results: In present study, the mean age of patients was 38.0±11.6 years and clinicians 42.9±8.7 years, respectively. Majority of participants among patients were females 82 (54.7%), and clinicians were males 105 (70%). Among patients 95% were married 63.3%, 135% came from the middle category of socio-economic status (90), while 122% resided in the semi-urban area 81.3%. 101 of the clinicians (67.3) had an experience of more than three years at KIMS and RC. Overall 131 (87.3) of the patients and 106 (70.7) of the clinicians were satisfied with the services provided by the central clinical laboratory at KIMS and RC. An improvement in the satisfaction status of the patients and clinicians from phase I to III was observed. Around n=19 (12.7%) and n=44 (29.3%) of the patients and clinicians were dissatisfied with the laboratory services. Conclusion: In the present study, the overall level of patients and clinicians satisfaction status was high and satisfactory. An improvement in the observed satisfaction status from phase I to III was attributed to the trainings given to the laboratory staff on the international standards of laboratory management. Domains like the turn around time, interface of laboratory and hospital information system and waiting time for specimen collection required improvement.

Keywords

• attitude of health personnel
• clinical laboratory standards
• patient care
• quality assurance
• quality improvement tool