Clinical laboratory management review : official publication of the Clinical Laboratory Management Association / CLMA
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Clin Lab Manage Rev · Mar 1997
Using patient satisfaction as an indicator of the quality of laboratory services. Applying social science methods to evaluate outcomes in laboratory medicine.
The authors discuss methods of outcomes research using patient satisfaction as a quality indicator for evaluating point-of-care (POC) laboratory methods. After commenting on the rationale for using this approach, we focus on specific techniques for developing questionnaires, collecting survey response data, and building a database for analysis. ⋯ Preliminary results thus far show no significant effects from the use of POC prothrombin time testing on hospital inpatient evaluations of their overall care. Using laboratory charges and total reimbursements for treatment as proxies for cost, we found a significant (p < 0.0001) difference in the costs for POC testing over those for testing in the central laboratory.