Customer satisfaction in Histopathology: A Quality control survey

Objectives:

Customer satisfaction surveys are a routine device used to assess performance. Surveys are used in hospitals to check physician and patient satisfaction. Hamad Medical corporation’s (HMC) histopathology laboratory is College of American pathologists (CAP) accredited with highly trained pathologists and technical staff that routinely undertake various educational courses and are involved in research related activities. The lab has state of the art staining and immunohistochemistry service as well. However, it was felt that not all clinicians are very comfortable approaching pathologists and some many times experience problems either contacting lab staff or updating histopathology orders. Hence to narrow down the problems encountered by the clinicians and improve the specimen flow through the lab along with the communication between clinician and pathologist, that we deem vital, we designed this pilot survey.

Methods:

The survey questionnaire was made online with 15 questions in total and the link was electronically mailed to all Consultant and Specialist physicians in Hamad medical corporation (HMC). Around 3500 emails were sent out but only 105 surveys were filled in two months’ time. The survey included questions pertaining to multiple facets of quality of histopathology services and information regarding the participant.

Results:

The overall satisfaction was highest for Multidisciplinary presentations (96%) and lowest (77%) for timeliness of reporting. The satisfaction was above 90% for clarity and format, Diagnostic accuracy and pathologists’ responsiveness to problems. Thirty six percent of the people rated MDT presentations as excellent while 46% of the people thought overall quality of professional interaction was good. The areas of improvement, as per this survey, was timeliness of reporting and notifications of significant abnormal results (overall satisfaction 79%). Majority of the people who took the survey (36%) were from internal medicine and half were members of multidisciplinary meetings (49%). Seventy-one of percent of the participants were from Hamad General hospital (HGH), while rest were from the other hospitals under HMC.

Conclusion:

The response rate for the survey was low, hence another survey with a wider reach, preferably by paper, is required to get more representative data. In general, the clinicians at HGH are satisfied with the services provided by the histopathology laboratory. Areas of improvement include Turnaround time (TAT), avoidance of descriptive reports and better communication with the ordering clinician.

Keywords:

Quality control, quality improvement, survey, histopathology, Laboratory