Three-year customer satisfaction survey in laboratory medicine in a Chinese university hospital

Background: Customer satisfaction is a key quality indicator of laboratory service. Patients and physicians are the ultimate customers in medical laboratory, and their opinions are essential components in developing a customer-oriented laboratory. Methods: A longitudinal investigation of customer satisfaction was conducted through questionnaires. We designed two different questionnaires and selected 1200 customers (600 outpatients and 600 physicians) to assess customer satisfaction every other year from 2012 to 2016. Items with scores <4 were considered unsatisfactory, and corrective actions should be taken. Results: The completion rates of physicians were 96.8% in 2012, 97% in 2014 and 96.5% in 2016, whereas the rates of patients were 95.3%, 96.2% and 95.2%, respectively. In 2012, the most dissatisfaction items were test turnaround time (3.77 points) and service attitude (3.87 points) from physicians, whereas waiting time (3.58 points) and examination environment (3.64 points) were the most dissatisfaction items from patients. After corrective actions were taken, the result of satisfaction in 2014 was better, which illustrated our strategy was effective. However, some items remained to be less than 4, so we repeated the survey after modifying questionnaires in 2016. However, the general satisfaction points of the physicians and patients reduced in 2016, which reminded us of some influential factors we had neglected. Conclusions: By using dynamic survey of satisfaction, we can continuously find deficiencies in our laboratory services and take suitable corrective actions, thereby improving our service quality.