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 health care 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, KIMS and RC 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 the 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 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 to 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 n=82 (54.7%), and clinicians were males n=105 (70%). Among patients 63.3% were married (n=95), 90% came from the middle category of socioeconomic status (n=135), while 81.3% resided in the semi-urban area n=122. 67.3% of the clinicians (n=101) had an experience of more than three years at KIMS and RC. Overall 87.3% (n=131) of the patients and n=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.