Rate of satisfaction in people who referring to Birjand medical diagnostic laboratories in 2010

Patient satisfaction is one of the concepts which today has gained a special significance in the area of medical cares, since it is only through satisfactory services that a medical system can fulfill its missions. Patients’ views must be taken into account while evaluating the success of health care services. Therefore this study was planned with the purpose of gauging patient's satisfaction from public and private medical diagnostic laboratories in Birjand. 250 patients referring to Birjand medical diagnostic laboratories were studied through a multilevel sampling method. First a state and two private laboratories were selected through cluster sampling and then the patients were selected through random sampling method. Data collection was made through questionnaires composed of 23 questions, including biographic, patient services and laboratory facilities questions, answered through direct interviews with the patients. For data analysis we used independent- t-test and unilateral variance analysis at the level of α<0.05. The cases studied were 49% men, and 51% women, 87% from urban areas, 30% with elementary school education, 32% with high-school diploma, and 37.5% with university degrees, 75% of them had come to the laboratories on the advice of their doctors, in 46% of the cases it was the first time they had come to the laboratories, in 19% the second time, and the remaining 35% more than second. The average patients’ satisfaction score, in provided services was 46.83 ± 4.74 out of 55, and the average score in laboratories Facilities was 19.59±2.81 out of 25. No significant difference between the type of laboratories (state or private) and patients’ satisfaction score, as well as, sex and education of the patients with their satisfaction score was observed. But the difference between the number of references of the patients and their satisfaction was significant (P<0.05). With respect to the satisfaction of the patients from the provision of services and the facilities of the medical diagnostic laboratories we can conclude that services provided in such laboratories are of such a good quality that they have been successful in gaining patients’ satisfaction, although they should try to improve the quality of their services.