Mystery patient insight into clinical laboratory service

Gone are the days when most patients tolerated impersonal service from their physicians and health-care providers in general. Every day, customer and patient satisfaction becomes more critical to a health-care provider's success and survival. Open communications, Internet-informed patients, and aggressive watch groups reveal those health-care providers who consistently deliver poor service. Most health-care providers employ patient satisfaction surveys to monitor their level of service; however, written and telephone surveys seldom provide the surveyor the insight necessary to provide differentiating service because of a large illiteracy rate and fear of reprisal. Toward this end, a well-trained mystery patients offers the health-care provider greater insight into how service is dispensed to its customers and patients. This article offers an aggregate of mystery patient insights into delivering clinical laboratory services both in hospital and medical practice environments, supported with insightful information into creating winning service strategies.