[Managing the quality of attention in public hospitals' clinical laboratories in Maracaibo, Venezuela].

Autor: Molero T; Departamento de Química, Escuela de Bioanálisis, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad del Zulia, Venezuela. tmp1509@hotmail.com, Panunzio A, Cruz S, Núñez M, Zambrano M, Parra I, Sánchez J
Jazyk: Spanish; Castilian
Zdroj: Revista de salud publica (Bogota, Colombia) [Rev Salud Publica (Bogota)] 2010 Aug; Vol. 12 (4), pp. 658-68.
DOI: 10.1590/s0124-00642010000400012
Abstrakt: Objective: Evaluating how clinical laboratories' quality was being managed according to the view of external users, thereby determining the dimensions of quality related to their satisfaction and sociodemographic characteristics.
Methods: The study was descriptive; the sample consisted of 1,875 outpatients attending the laboratories of type 3 and 4 care level public hospitals located in the metropolitan area of Zulia State in Venezuela between October and December 2008. A previously validated survey was applied. Frequency allocation, multivariate analysis and variance analysis were used for analysing data.
Results: The results showed that the most users were female (72.7 %), of local origin (87.9 %), aged between 15 and 45 (65.7 %) and had received primary and secondary education (70.5 %). Multivariate analysis showed that quality management could be evaluated in terms of accessibility, tangible elements, response ability, safety and professional competence. There were highly significant differences (p<0.001) between educational level and age when evaluating management quality. Weaknesses were revealed concerning time spent waiting in reception, waiting room comfort and safety measures used by technical staff.
Conclusions: The results should lead to establishing action aimed at evaluating the degree of improvement in service and proposed targets for improving the quality of attention; such measures will form part of a quality assurance programme in accordance with international standards.
Databáze: MEDLINE