Clients and clinician satisfaction with laboratory services at selected government hospitals in eastern Ethiopia

Teklemariam et al. BMC Research Notes 2013, 6:15 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/6/15 SHORT REPORT Open Access Clients and clinician satisfaction with laboratory services at selected government hospitals in eastern Ethiopia Zelalem Teklemariam1*, Abiyu Mekonnen1, Haji Kedir2 and Getachew Kabew1 Abstract Background: In clinical laboratory service, patients and clinical service providers are the primary focus of survey of satisfaction in many countries. The objective of the study was to assess clients’ and clinicians’ satisfaction with laboratory services at selected government hospitals in eastern Ethiopia from May to June, 2010. Findings: A cross sectional study was conducted at Dil Chora, Jugal, Hiwot Fana and Bisidimo hospitals. Data were collected from 429 patients and 54 clinical service providers. A statistical analysis was conducted using Likert Scale and SPSS Version 16 software. Most of the patients (87.6%) were satisfied with the laboratory services. The lowest [2.48 ± 1.39] and highest [4.27 ± 0.83] rate satisfaction were on cleanness of latrine to collect specimens and availability of laboratory staff on working hours respectively. The extent of the patients’ satisfaction was different among the study hospitals (P-value < 0.05). Most of the clinical services providers (80%) were also satisfied with the laboratory services. The lowest [3.02 ± 1.36] and highest [3.78 ± 1.03] rate of satisfaction were found on critical value notification and timely test results for HIV/AIDS patients care respectively. Conclusion: The overall degree of customers’ satisfaction with laboratory services was high. But there were some services such as the cleanness of latrines, information given during specimen collection outside laboratory and critical value notification which need attention. Therefore, the hospital administrations and the laboratory departments should work harder and closely to solve the identified problems. Further study with a larger sample size and more factors is recommended. Keywords: Laboratory services, Satisfaction, Clinical services providers, Patients, Eastern Ethiopia Findings Background Clinical laboratories are part of the health institution team which produces important information for the patients’ care [1,2]. Laboratory services are given in all health institutions, except in health posts [3]. The problems related to clinical laboratory are aggravated particularly at peripheral level due to lack of properly designed laboratory rooms, shortage of short term and long term training for laboratory staff, lack of water and electricity, shortage of equipment and supplies, absence of effective maintenance and spare parts and lack of follow-up and supervision [3-5]. * Correspondence: 1 Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Haramaya University, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article The satisfaction of customers is measured to identify problems and resolve them [6-8]. It is also an important and useful quality improvement tool for clinical laboratory, health care organizations, and business in general. Most clinical laboratories in the United States are required to assess their customers’ satisfaction in order to maintain their accreditations [9]. Some previous studies have assessed the laboratories in Ethiopia [3,4,10]. The findings of them revealed that there were shortage of manpower, equipment, chemicals and other supplies, absence of a quality assurance program network and problems in maintenance of equipment. However, customer’s satisfaction by laboratory services has not yet exhaustively studied in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study assessed clients’ and clinicians’ satisfaction with laboratory services at selected government hospitals in eastern Ethiopia. © 2013 Teklemariam et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Teklemariam et al. BMC Research Notes 2013, 6:15 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/6/15 Page 2 of 7 Table 1 Distribution of socio –demographic characteristics of patient respondents by their percentage of level of satisfaction at selected hospitals in eastern part of Ethiopia, 2010 Variables Dissatisfied Satisfied Neutral Total No (%) No (%) Male 28(6.7) 168( 40.1) 5 201(46.9) Female 24(5.7) 199(47.5) 5 228(54.1) 18-27 29(6.9) 141(33.7) 5 175(40.8) 28-37 9(2.1) 102(24.3) 1 112(26.1) 38-47 8(1.9) 67(16.0) 2 77(17.9) 48-57 3(0.7) 25(6.0) 1 29(6.8) ≥ 58 3(0.7) 32(7.6) 1 36(8.4) X2 df P-value 1.19 1 0.28 6.02 4 0.19 5.1 6 0.53 1.70 6 0.95 2.4 1 0.12 2.9 3 0.41 36.2 3 0.00 No (%) Gender Age Marital status Single 15(3.6) 99(23.6) 2 116(27.0) Married 37(8.8) 223(53.2) 8 268(62.5) Divorced 0 18(4.3) 0 18(4.2) Widowed 0 27(6.4) 0 27(6.3) Educational status Unable to read and write 17(4.0) 116(27.7) 4 137(31.9) Able to read and write 1 (0.2) 13 (3.1) 0 14(3.3) 1-4 4 (1.0) 41 (9.8) 1 46(10.7) 5-8 10(2.4) 84 (20.0) 3 97(22.6) 9-10 9 (2.1) 36 (8.6) 0 45(10.5) 11-12 6 (1.4) 27 (6.4) 1 34(7.9) + 5 (1.2) 50 (11.9) 1 56(13.1) 12 Occupation Government employee 8(1.9) 54(12.9) 0 62(14.5) Merchant 7(1.7) 46(11.0) 1 54(12.0) Farmer 19(4.5) 110(26.3) 5 134(31.2) NGO’s 1(0.2) 8(1.9) 0 9(2.1) Retired 4(1.0) 36(8.6) 2 42(9.8) Daily laborer 8(1.9) 60(14.3) 1 69(16.1) Student 5(1.2) 53(12.6) 1 59(13.8) Urban 25 (6.0) 214 (51.0) 7 250(58.7) Rural 27(6.4) 149 (35.6) 3 179(41.3) Residence No. times of patients visit laboratory in this year 1times 11( 2.6) 59 (14.1) 3 73(17.0) 2times 10 (2.4) 55( 13.1) 1 66(15.4) 3times 25( 6.0) 222 (53) 5 252(58.7) More than 3 times 6 (1.4) 31(7.4) 1 38(8.9) Bisidemo 6(1.4) 56(13.4) 0 62(14.5) Jugal 18 (4.3) 77(18.4) 4 99(23.1) Hiwot Fana 27(6.4) 87(20.8) 6 120(28) Dil Chora 1(0.2) 147(35.1) 0 148(34.5) Selected Hospitals name Teklemariam et al. BMC Research Notes 2013, 6:15 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/6/15 Page 3 of 7 Table 2 Univariate and Multivariate analysis to assess predicator socio- demographic variables with the satisfaction of patients at selected hospitals in eastern part of Ethiopia, 2010 Variables Crude OR (95% CI) P-value Adjusted OR (95% CI) P-value Gender Female 1.00 Male 1.38(0.77,2.48) 0.28 Age 18-27 1.00 28-37 2.19(0.62,7.65) 0.22 38-47 0.94(0.24.3.69) 0.93 48-57 1.27(032.5.12) 0.73 ≥ 58 1.28(024,6.89) 0.77 Educational status illiterate 1.00 Literate 1.05(0.57,1.95) 0.88 Occupation NGO’s 1.00 Retired 0.72(0.86,6.12) 0.77 Merchant 0.64(0.21,2.01) 0.45 Student 0.88(0.35,2.24) 0. (...truncated)