**2. Conceptual clarifications**

Patients are referred to as the main value of the medical and clinical environment. They are the reason for all works and therefore work cannot be done without them. Patients' satisfaction has a positive effect on clinical improvement, patient's adherence and retention, job satisfaction and appropriate clinical care by physicians [5, 9].

Patients' satisfaction is an expression of the gap between the expected and perceived characteristics of a service. It is recommended that patients be asked to report on their experiences through specific questions. Technique of factor analysis has demonstrated that patients' satisfaction is chiefly determined by 6 dimensions which are; care and information, food and physical facilities, non-tangible environment, nursing care, quantity of food and visiting arrangements [8]. However, any quality and improvement in healthcare without consideration to medical laboratory services may be missing a lot. The quality improvement in healthcare is mainly proven by the high quality of medical laboratory results.

Medical laboratory services in Nigerian public health facilities, have been rated very poor by patients. This is because patients are faced with overcrowding, long waiting time, poor provider-patient communication, poor facilities and environment while the patients are expecting higher standard. There is no doubt that there is a shift from professional perception that patients are uneducated and with little healthcare choice, to the fact that they are educated consumers who have many service demands and healthcare choices to make. This sends a signal to respect the patients and their needs or wishes as patients' perception provides the standard of quality in medical laboratory services and healthcare in general. The patient's satisfaction with medical laboratory service involves satisfaction with laboratory staff-patient interaction, satisfaction with sample collection processes, satisfaction with waiting time, satisfaction with laboratory facilities and environment, and satisfaction with costs of service [10, 11].

*Patients' (Clients) Satisfaction with Medical Laboratory Services Contributes to Health… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99290*

#### **Figure 1.**

*Customer service is an essential inclusion in quality systems in the laboratory.*

Patients satisfaction towards medical laboratory service is influenced by the quality of service and professionalism of the staff, provision of adequate information to collect sample and when and how to receive laboratory results, waiting time to receive laboratory results, availability of ordered laboratory tests, cleanness of the laboratory and accessibility of latrines [9].

Patients' satisfaction is core to quality of health and medical laboratory quality essential (**Figure 1**). It is always meaningless when it does not satisfy its users and clients. Measuring patients satisfaction plays an important role in the growing push towards healthcare, provide accountability and is critical in the implementation of continues improvement in medical settings. Patients satisfaction often reflect their perception of the healthcare offered as well as the process of giving that care compared to their expectations. In the laboratory, the connection between health service of quality and naturally experiencing quality leads to customer satisfaction. The customer satisfaction leads to the experiencing quality and experiencing quality also leads to customer satisfaction [12–14].

#### **3. Discovering clients as the king in medical laboratory practice**

The universal saying that the client (customer) is the king is also applicable in medical laboratory science. The clients in the medical laboratory practice are the pioneer of all work that are been carried out in the laboratory.


#### **Table 1.**

*Categories of medical laboratories and possible customers (clients).*

There is an increase attention to the clause "customer is the king" which relates the companies and their customer market. This new era of world economy globalization presents customers and the public as having the ears of the sellers based on the ability to choose, intervene and cause changes and improvement through buying power and definitions of necessities in the offers made by various companies and their marketers [15].

The emphasis on customer is the king is on satisfaction and a major reason of companies (health facility) existence. While the want of customers of interest to companies, marketing strategies should not be neglected even in the healthcare arena. Though customers may indicate what they want at any point, a time will come when there would be a need for new things and no wonder there is shape, design and size change by good marketing companies and this can be adopted in healthcare services especially in medical laboratories in other to satisfy their customers [16].

The increase in the buying experience is largely dependent on how the customers are being treated. That is why the failure to make transaction is majorly based on *Patients' (Clients) Satisfaction with Medical Laboratory Services Contributes to Health… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99290*

poor quality customer service. The existing customers are majorly the king as the patronage continues excellently than have new customers. The customer is the king when all the services needed are met and improved upon to suit every condition and time. No wonder some products are modified after a while in companies and marketing areas. This is not excluded from medical laboratory services, ranging from how services are being rendered to all the facility components that needs renovation and improvement from time to time [15].

The standard at which the healthcare provider and the customer ensure the laboratory function in a valuable way for their needs to be served. Clients in the medical laboratory practice expects that all works are done accurately and perfectly. The healthcare system does not function without the clients as the main trust or target for the work.

The customer is the king in medical laboratory services based on what the various categories of customers (**Table 1**) can get from such facility at any time of patronage.
