Evaluation of Prescriber Satisfaction in a University Testing Laboratory of Bacteriology

Background and Objectives: Given the growing concern focused on the continuous improvement of the quality of care, safety and customer satisfaction, the Ibn Sina University Hospital (CHIS) has started an ambitious program for institutionalization of quality management at the establishments under the CHIS, in general, and the ISO certification 9001v2008 of its biomedical analysis laboratories, in particular. Furthermore, it is recognized that satisfaction of patients and prescribers is an evaluation of quality care, and an indicator of weaknesses in the services. The purpose of this study was to measure the prescriber’s satisfaction for the services provided by a university testing laboratory of bacteriology in order to identify the axes of improvement and meet their expectations. Methods: One of the goals of this study was to measure the overall and specific satisfaction of prescribers towards the services provided by Ibn Sina University testing laboratory of bacteriology (Rabat), to analyze the links with their characteristics, and to strengthen collaboration between the laboratory and prescribers services in order to identify the axes of improvement and meet their expectations. The starting point of this work was obtaining satisfaction scores by item. For this purpose, dimension and a final overall score were calculated. A validated questionnaire including 14 items, built according to the literature, was transferred to all clinical services asking for analyses. Then descriptive analyses were carried out to optimize the instrument that measures the aspects of the quality to prioritize the needs of prescribers. Findings: The participation rate was 76%, and the questionnaire allowed us to assess 4 underlying dimensions of satisfaction. Satisfaction scores were 50±26% for the transmission of information about the service activity; 43±26% for communication and relational exchange, and 42±27% for the quality and timeliness of reporting results. Identification of priorities and relevance of corrective actions on the basis of calculating a quality improvement score index showed that the quality aspects deserve priorities for actions to be undertaken to fully meet the benchmarks set out. Our study is one of the rare and pioneer researches in Morocco and at the CHIS since few studies are interested in prioritizing the expectations of prescribers in Morocco through the design of a simple and useful tool in practice of evaluation of quality improvement scores using the physicians satisfaction as an index to study the most important aspects to improve our services in line with the CHIS clinicians. Conclusions: It is possible to transpose our results with those of foreign works because of the similarities and differences between the health systems on one condition to adapt them to the Moroccan context. However, some aspects should be considered by our health professionals to ensure the required quality.