Physician Satisfaction With Clinical Laboratory Services: A College of American Pathologists Q-Probes Study of 138 Institutions

2009 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-43
Author(s):  
Bruce A. Jones ◽  
Leonas G. Bekeris ◽  
Raouf E. Nakhleh ◽  
Molly K. Walsh ◽  
Paul N. Valenstein
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Clinical Laboratory ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
Physician Satisfaction ◽  
Reliability Of Results ◽  
Improvement Program ◽  
Valuable Component ◽  
Laboratory Services ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
High Level

Abstract 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.

Hospital Nursing Satisfaction With Clinical Laboratory Services: A College of American Pathologists Q-Probes Study of 162 Institutions

2006 ◽  
Vol 130 (12) ◽  
pp. 1756-1761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce A. Jones ◽  
Molly K. Walsh ◽  
Stephen G. Ruby
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Clinical Laboratory ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
Satisfaction Score ◽  
Nursing Personnel ◽  
Laboratory Management ◽  
Nursing Satisfaction ◽  
Laboratory Service ◽  
Hospital Nursing ◽  
Laboratory Services

Abstract Context.—Monitoring customer satisfaction is an important and useful quality improvement tool and is required of most clinical laboratories in the United States. Objective.—To survey the level of nursing satisfaction with hospital clinical laboratory services. Design.—Participating laboratories provided information regarding laboratory demographics and practices. These laboratories then surveyed hospital nursing personnel regarding their level of satisfaction with defined aspects of laboratory service. Setting.—College of American Pathologists Q-Probes laboratory quality improvement study in 162 hospital laboratories. Main Outcome Measures.—Nursing overall satisfaction score (ranging from 1, not satisfied, to 5, very satisfied) and satisfaction scores for 13 specific aspects of clinical laboratory services. Results.—One hundred sixty-two institutions submitted data from a total of 7033 nursing surveys. The overall satisfaction score for all institutions ranged from 2.5 to 4.6. The median overall score for all participants was 3.9 (10th percentile, 3.2; 90th percentile, 4.2). Nursing personnel were most satisfied with the accuracy of test results, phlebotomy courtesy toward patients and nursing staff, and notification of abnormal results. They were least satisfied with stat test turnaround time, laboratory management responsiveness and accessibility, phlebotomy responsiveness to service requests, and routine test turnaround time. The most important aspect of laboratory service reported by nursing personnel was stat test turnaround time. Conclusions.—Most nursing personnel are satisfied with the clinical laboratory services that are provided to the patients in their care. Although test result accuracy is very highly regarded, there is room for improvement in several aspects of service, particularly in test turnaround time and laboratory management accessibility and responsiveness.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the quality of clinical laboratory services in the University Hospital of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-50
Author(s):  
Chabo Byaene Alain ◽  
◽  
Mabela Matendo Rostin ◽  
Konde Numbi Joël ◽  
Muhindo Mavoko Hypolite ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Clinical Laboratory ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
University Hospital ◽  
Laboratory Services ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
The University

The evaluation of the quality of a service is the critical assessment of the degree to which the service, or its component, provides customers’ satisfaction. Monitoring customer satisfaction is an important and useful quality improvement tool for clinical laboratories and health care organizations. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the satisfaction level with laboratory services among attending physicians and to identify factors associated with satisfaction and priorities for quality improvement. A cross-sectional study was conducted at the University Hospital of Kinshasa. Data were collected through a reliable and valid interviewer-administered questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS version 21. The correlation between associated factors and customer satisfaction was analyzed using the chi-square test and multivariate regression analysis. The Importance-Performance Analysis was the determinant of improvement priority. The overall level of customers’ satisfaction toward clinical laboratory services in this study was 45.2% with a response rate of 330 (100%). Gender (ORadj = 1.75, 95% CI 1.06, 2.91), Department (ORadj = 3.09, 95% CI 1.50, 6.37) and academic title (ORadj = 6.85, 95% CI 3.51, 8.81) were found to have a statistically significant association with the overall satisfaction. Results accuracy (I = 0.944, P = 4.7), laboratory turnaround time (I = 0.932, P = 4.8), and availability of all the tests requested by physicians (I = 0.917, P = 4.9) were the most important opportunities for quality improvement. The overall level of customers’ satisfaction with laboratory services was low. Thus, the laboratory management must establish preventive and corrective measures to improve the results’ accuracy, reduce the laboratory turnaround time, and ensure the availability of all the tests requested by physicians. Keywords: Customers satisfaction, clinical laboratory, services’ quality, continuous improvement, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Physician Satisfaction With Clinical Laboratory Services: A College of American Pathologists Q-Probes Study of 81 Institutions

2016 ◽  
Vol 140 (10) ◽  
pp. 1098-1103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon J. McCall ◽  
Rhona J. Souers ◽  
Barbara Blond ◽  
Larry Massie
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Laboratory ◽  
Challenge Test ◽  
Physician Satisfaction ◽  
Clinical Report ◽  
Order Entry ◽  
Improvement Program ◽  
Quality Of Results ◽  
Laboratory Services ◽  
Electronic Order

Context.—Assessment of customer satisfaction is a vital component of the laboratory quality improvement program.Objective.—To survey the level of physician satisfaction with hospital clinical laboratory services.Design.—Participating institutions provided demographic information and survey results of physician satisfaction, with specific features of clinical laboratory services individually rated on a scale of 5 (excellent) to 1 (poor).Results.—Eighty-one institutions submitted 2425 surveys. The median overall satisfaction score was 4.2 (10th percentile, 3.6; 90th percentile, 4.6). Of the 16 surveyed areas receiving the highest percentage of excellent/good ratings (combined scores of 4 and 5), quality of results was highest along with test menu adequacy, staff courtesy, and overall satisfaction. Of the 4 categories receiving the lowest percentage values of excellent/good ratings, 3 were related to turnaround time for inpatient “STAT” (tests performed immediately), outpatient STAT, and esoteric tests. The fourth was a new category presented in this survey: ease of electronic order entry. Here, 11.4% (241 of 2121) of physicians assigned below-average (2) or poor (1) scores. The 5 categories deemed most important to physicians included quality of results, turnaround times for inpatient STAT, routine, and outpatient STAT tests, and clinical report format. Overall satisfaction as measured by physician willingness to recommend their laboratory to another physician remains high at 94.5% (2160 of 2286 respondents).Conclusions.—There is a continued trend of high physician satisfaction and loyalty with clinical laboratory services. Physician dissatisfaction with ease of electronic order entry represents a new challenge. Test turnaround times are persistent areas of dissatisfaction, representing areas for improvement.

Customer Satisfaction in Anatomic Pathology

2003 ◽  
Vol 127 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Zarbo ◽  
Raouf E. Nakhleh ◽  
Molly Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Performance Improvement ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physician Satisfaction ◽  
Satisfaction Survey ◽  
Pathology Laboratory ◽  
Anatomic Pathology ◽  
Laboratory Services ◽  
High Level

Abstract Context.—Measurement of physicians' and patients' satisfaction with laboratory services has recently become a requirement of health care accreditation agencies in the United States. To our knowledge, this is the first customer satisfaction survey of anatomic pathology services to provide a standardized tool and benchmarks for subsequent measures of satisfaction. Objective.—This Q-Probes study assessed physician satisfaction with anatomic pathology laboratory services and sought to determine characteristics that correlate with a high level of physician satisfaction. Design.—In January 2001, each laboratory used standardized survey forms to assess physician customer satisfaction with 10 specific elements of service in anatomic pathology and an overall satisfaction rating based on a scale of rankings from a 5 for excellent to a 1 for poor. Data from up to 50 surveys returned per laboratory were compiled and analyzed by the College of American Pathologists. A general questionnaire collected information about types of services offered and each laboratory's quality assurance initiatives to determine characteristics that correlate with a high level of physician satisfaction. Setting.—Hospital-based laboratories in the United States (95.8%), as well as others from Canada and Australia. Participants.—Ninety-four voluntary subscriber laboratories in the College of American Pathologists Q-Probes quality improvement program participated in this survey. Roughly 70% of respondents were from hospitals with occupied bedsizes of 300 or less, 65% were private nonprofit institutions, just over half were located in cities, one third were teaching hospitals, and 19% had pathology residency training programs. Main Outcome Measures.—Overall physician satisfaction with anatomic pathology and 10 selected aspects of the laboratory service (professional interaction, diagnostic accuracy, pathologist responsiveness to problems, pathologist accessibility for frozen section, tumor board presentations, courtesy of secretarial and technical staff, communication of relevant information, teaching conferences and courses, notification of significant abnormal results, and timeliness of reporting). Results.—The database of 3065 physician surveys was derived from 94 laboratories. An average of 32.6 surveys (median 30) was returned per institution, with a range of 5 to 50 surveys per institution. The mean response rate was 35.6% (median 32.5%). The median (50th percentile) laboratory had an overall median satisfaction score of 4.4. The lowest satisfaction scores that were obtained all related to poor communication, which included timeliness of reporting, communication of relevant information, and notification of significant abnormal results. Statistically significant associations of customer satisfaction with certain institutional characteristics and laboratory performance improvement activities were identified. Conclusions.—The importance of this satisfaction survey lies not in its requirement as an exercise for accrediting agencies but in understanding the needs of the customer (in this case the physician) to direct performance improvement in the delivery of quality anatomic pathology laboratory services.

scholarly journals Quality improvement efforts in pre-analytical phase

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Osman Sianipar
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Clinical Laboratory ◽  
Sample Storage ◽  
Laboratory Errors ◽  
Laboratory Services ◽  
Laboratory Results ◽  
Patient Preparation ◽  
Quality And Patient Safety ◽  
Analytical Phase ◽  
Article Quality

In a clinical laboratory services pre-analytical phase has plays an important role in term of quality and patient safety. Pre-analytical phase is a phase before analyzing sample in laboratory which  includes  patient preparation, sampling, labeling, sample transportation, sample storage,  and preservation of samples that might influence the laboratory results. In this phase it involves interaction between patient, doctor, laboratory personels, and other staff outside the laboratory. Therefore, it could be assumed that in this phase many sample are collected, many laboratory tests are requested, many individuals are involved and therefore laboratory errors might be occured. Laboratory errors can occur either in pre-analytical, analytical, or post analytical phases but the most frequently errors occur in pre-analytical phase. In this article, quality improvement efforts in pre-analytical phase will be discussed in order to minimize pre-analytical error. 

The adaptation of AABACUS for quality improvement in laboratory workflow analysis ('L-AABACUS')

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-243
Author(s):  
Shehnaz Khan ◽  
Carol C Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Continuous Quality ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Laboratory Workflow ◽  
Proof Of Principle

The ability to effectively monitor key indicators is important for continuous quality improvement in laboratory immunohistochemistry. This article deals specifically with laboratory turnaround time (TAT) as a key delivery indicator and the impact of laboratory workflow on laboratory TATs. While our laboratory has traditionally relied on the manual calculation of slide-TAT (S-TAT) to monitor delivery, we have determined that automated calculation of case-TAT (C-TAT) would be superior as a delivery indicator. AABACUS (Automatable Activity-Based Approach to Complexity Unit Scoring) is an activity-based workload model designed to function primarily as a decision support tool to monitor pathologist staffing levels. We devised a high-level proof-of-principle approach to determine whether it is possible to apply AABACUS as a decision support tool for quality improvement through analysis of alternative laboratory workflows that have potential to impact C-TAT. Our use of AABACUS in this proof-of-principle quality improvement endeavour was two-fold: (1) we leveraged the ability of AABACUS to link data at the slide level to data at the case level, which enabled the automated calculation of C-TAT; and (2) we adapted AABACUS to evaluate the impact of laboratory workflow activities (specifically workflow bifurcation activities) on the calculated C-TATs. We have coined the term 'L-AABACUS' to describe the adaptation of AABACUS to the analysis of laboratory workflow.

scholarly journals Delivering clinical laboratory services to intensive care units

1996 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
M W Steffes ◽  
J L Gillen ◽  
S A Fuhrman
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care ◽  
Intensive Care Units ◽  
Cost Reduction ◽  
Clinical Laboratory ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
Laboratory Services ◽  
Surgical Icu ◽  
Integrated Program

Abstract In response to the pressures of cost reduction, we established and evaluated a carefully integrated program to deliver clinical laboratory services more promptly and efficiently to the intensive care units (ICUs). The new protocol reduced the steps and turnaround time from ordering tests by physicians to reporting results by as much as 80% on all ICUs, permitting significant reductions in personnel (exceeding $400,000 per year). For the surgical ICU there were also fewer blood collections (mean preprotocol: 7.0 per patient per 24 h; mean last 12 months: 6.0; P= 0.002). The volume of blood collected fell from 8.1 to 3.5 mL per collection, primarily following an emphasis on small containers. Consequently, the amount of blood taken from each surgical ICU patient decreased from 56 to 21 mL per 24 h (P <0.001).

Improvement of Clinical Laboratory Services through Quality

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Mourtzikou ◽  
Marilena Stamouli ◽  
Elena Athanasiadi
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Clinical Laboratory ◽  
Internal Quality ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Improvement Program ◽  
Laboratory Performance ◽  
Laboratory Services ◽  
Poor Individual ◽  
Eqa Schemes

Health care providers need test results that are relevant, accurate, and reliable for patient care. The term “quality control” is used to describe the set of procedures used to check that the results of laboratory tests are reliable for the intended clinical use. A laboratory might produce results that are considered unsatisfactory. While the cause for this might be immediately apparent, the identification of the underlying problem is neither always straightforward, nor easy because many factors can affect result quality. Internal quality control (IQC) and external quality assessment (EQA) are two distinct but complementary components of a laboratory quality improvement program. IQC ensures day-to-day laboratory consistency. EQA permits the identification of poor individual laboratory performance, as well as the detection of reagents, instruments and methods that produce unreliable or misleading results, by means of a retrospective analysis of data obtained by participating laboratories. Continuous participation in EQA schemes has been linked to improved laboratory performance.

American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program as a Quality Improvement Tool: A Single Institution's Experience with Vascular Surgical Site Infections

2013 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Compoginis ◽  
Steven G. Katz
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Surgical Site Infections ◽  
Quality Improvement Program ◽  
Improvement Program ◽  
Surgical Quality ◽  
Patient Morbidity ◽  
American College Of Surgeons ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Surgical Preparation ◽  
High Level

Vascular surgical site infections (VSSIs) result in significant patient morbidity and hospital cost. The objective of this study is to report a single hospital's experience using the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) as an instrument to decrease VSSIs. After review of initial NSQIP data, changes in antibiotic dosage and timing, surgical preparation, patient warming, and oxygenation were put into practice. Records of all patients undergoing vascular surgical operations during a two-year period were reviewed and VSSIs were identified. Statistical comparisons were made between groups before and after implementation of these changes. A total of 478 cases met our criteria. Practice changes were introduced in October 2009 and fully implemented by January 2010. Two hundred forty-three cases were performed in 2009 and 235 in 2010. When operations during the two time periods were compared, significantly fewer VSSIs were identified in 2010 than in 2009 ( P = 0.036). NSQIP enabled our institution to identify an unacceptably high level of VSSIs. By implementing changes in our clinical practice, we were able to significantly lower our rate of VSSI.

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