Physician satisfaction with clinical laboratory services: a College of American Pathologists Q-probes study of 138 institutions.

CONTEXT: Monitoring customer satisfaction is a valuable component of a laboratory quality improvement program.

OBJECTIVE: To survey the level of physician satisfaction with hospital clinical laboratory services.

DESIGN: Participating institutions provided demographic and practice information and survey results of physician satisfaction with defined aspects of clinical laboratory services, rated on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent).

RESULTS: One hundred thirty-eight institutions participated in this study and submitted a total of 4329 physician surveys. The overall satisfaction score for all institutions ranged from 2.9 to 5.0. The median overall score for all participants was 4.1 (10th percentile, 3.6; 90th percentile, 4.5). Physicians were most satisfied with the quality/reliability of results and staff courtesy, with median values of excellent or good ratings of 89.9%. Of the 5 service categories that received the lowest percentage values of excellent/good ratings (combined scores of 4 and 5), 4 were related to turnaround time for inpatient stat, outpatient stat, routine, and esoteric tests. Surveys from half of the participating laboratories reported that 96% to 100% of physicians would recommend the laboratory to other physicians. The category most frequently selected as the most important category of laboratory services was quality/reliability of results (31.7%).

CONCLUSIONS: There continues to be a high level of physician satisfaction and loyalty with clinical laboratory services. Test turnaround times are persistent categories of dissatisfaction and present opportunities for improvement.