Reference laboratory telephone service quality.

Abstract

Abstract Objectives.—To establish the rates with which reference laboratories resolve inquiries telephoned to them from primary laboratories and to identify reference laboratory practices associated with higher rates of inquiry resolution. Design and Participants.—For 2 months, or until 50 contacts had occurred, 545 primary laboratories participating in the College of American Pathologists Q-Probes laboratory quality improvement program prospectively documented and characterized telephone inquiries they made to a reference laboratory of their choice. Participants also cataloged their own laboratory's demographic and practice characteristics and their reference laboratory's customer service characteristics. Main Outcome Measure.—Rates with which reference laboratories resolved telephone inquiries. Results.—Participants characterized 11 031 (78.7%) of 14 017 telephone inquiries as resolved by the reference laboratories. Ranked according to inquiry resolution rates, primary laboratories in the 90th percentil...