Patients Satisfaction on Clinical Laboratory Services at Nekemte Referral Hospital, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Satisfaction is the extent to which the clients feel their needs are fulfilled and their expectations are being met by the service provider. Furthermore, understanding the level of client satisfaction and identifying the factors hindering client satisfaction are the most important base lines to improve the quality of service being delivered.

Objective: to assess the extent to which patients were satisfied on clinical laboratory services provided at  Nekemte Referral Hospital   (NRH) .

Method: A Hospital based cross sectional study was conducted on randomly selected 422 Patients requested for clinical laboratory service at NRH from March to April 2014. Data were collected using structured, pretested, interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using SPSS for windows version 20.

Result: Among the 422 patients, 255 (60.4%) were satisfied, 75 (17.8%) were neutral and 92(21.8%) were dissatisfied with the laboratory services given in Nekemte Referral Hospital. There was no significant association between socio-demographic characteristics and level of satisfaction of patients (P- value > 0.05).In Likert Scale, the overall mean rate of satisfaction of patients with laboratory services in Nekemte referral hospital was 3.65 out of the 5 points. The lowest mean rating of satisfaction were given for Cleanness of latrine and location of the laboratory in the hospital with mean rating of 2.15 and 2.17 respectively.

Conclusion: The overall degree of patient  customers’ satisfaction with the laboratory services at Nekemte Referral Hospital was 60.4% .patients were dissatisfied in cleanness and location of latrines in the hospital. Therefore; hospital administration and the laboratory department of  Nekemte referral Hospital should strive more to enhance patients’ satisfaction, particularly in sanitation and location of the latrine in the hospital.

Key Words: patients’ Satisfaction, Clinical Laboratory Services, Nekemte Referral Hospital