GE Healthcare Cardiac Ultrasound Service Boosts Customer Satisfaction Scores In Two Surveys

Main Category: MRI / PET / Ultrasound
Also Included In: Medical Devices / Diagnostics
Article Date: 25 Sep 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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GE Healthcare's satisfaction scores reflect significant improvements in customer perceptions of service quality in both MD Buyline's 2nd quarter 2008 customer satisfaction survey and IMV ServiceTrak's 2008 report. MD Buyline and ServiceTrak present independent analysis of service trends in industry and manufacturer ratings within each modality.

"We think it's significant that two completely separate surveys show that GE Healthcare Cardiac Ultrasound Service has made positive changes," said Ann Marie Lubert, General Manager, GE Healthcare Ultrasound Services. "These achievements are consistent with the trend of our own customer satisfaction measurements. Latest scores reveal that 93 percent of our customers are not only satisfied, but also willing to recommend GE Healthcare Cardiac Ultrasound Service to a peer. Clearly, this is an indication that the programs and initiatives we've implemented over the last year to enhance our service offerings are working."

Strong service improvements

MD Buyline's 2nd quarter 2008 customer satisfaction survey reports that GE Healthcare scores are up in three key areas, including the composite score. Compared to the 1st quarter 2008 ratings, GE Healthcare realized gains in system performance, system reliability and applications training. In service response time and service repair quality categories, GE Healthcare held steady compared to last quarter. When matched with its three main competitors, GE Healthcare was the only manufacturer that posted an overall increase in the overall composite score versus last quarter.

IMV ServiceTrak survey reflects broad-based increases in customer satisfaction

In the 2008 ServiceTrak Imaging - Ultrasound Cardiology report, GE Healthcare improved in 32 of 34 categories and posted the largest gain in service follow-up. In addition, GE Healthcare leads the industry in this year's report in its ratings for technology upgradeability, the ability to provide expected image quality and in the capacity to solve issues by telephone.

In terms of OEM service engineer performance, which measures timeliness of the initial phone call, troubleshooting effectiveness, punctuality, attitude and the degree to which commitments are met - GE Healthcare scored higher in all criteria when compared to 2007. Notably, 92 percent of GE Healthcare respondents rated the attitude of GE Healthcare service engineers as "very good" or "excellent," Lubert said.

The percentage of GE Healthcare Ultrasound Cardiology systems connected through InSite ExC increased in 2008. The IMV ServiceTrak report also showed that the percentage of time GE Healthcare is able to diagnose problems remotely increased 22 percent and that the ability to remotely resolve problems increased by 18 percent. Both of these 2008 ratings are above industry average.

The manufacturer performance ratings part of the survey measured six attributes: overall manufacturer satisfaction, effectiveness in resolving problems, repurchase probability, replacement part availability and fair value, and ability to upgrade technology.

"We ranked number one in the industry for the ability to upgrade our cardiac ultrasound technology and 82 percent of our respondents rated this attribute 'very good' or 'excellent,' Lubert noted. "Additionally, in all six of these attributes, GE Healthcare's ratings improved compared to last year."

Source of improvements

Lubert believes GE Healthcare's rankings reflect the 2008 Insite ExC compatibility expansion to users of Vivid 7, the company's flagship cardiovascular ultrasound system. InSite ExC allows GE Healthcare to help Vivid 7 customers at their point of care with minimal interruption to exam schedules.

"With InSite ExC, our customers can connect their Vivid 7 systems to the LiveAssist Center via secure broadband connection," Lubert said. "With the customer's permission, the LiveAssist staff can then see and control the very same screens as our customers, and can often diagnose and resolve service and application issues during the call."

Customers view the ability to perform online clinical support as particularly valuable. A likely scenario might be a stress echo procedure, in which the sonographer needs guidance in configuring the stress test template. In such a case, an On-Line Clinical Application Specialist can walk the sonographer through the appropriate steps.

Finally, GE Healthcare's training program for field engineers has been greatly expanded. In addition to their technical expertise, GE Healthcare field engineers are building clinical knowledge, customer skills and a deeper understanding of quality procedures, which helps them to more intuitively appreciate customer needs and has turned them into even stronger customer advocates.

"Without a doubt, the improvements that these surveys show us were not just random - we proactively set out to enhance our customers' experience of GE Healthcare Cardiac Ultrasound Service across the board," Lubert said, "and that is a trend that will continue."

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat, and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases, and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection, and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17- billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our Web site at http://www.gehealthcare.com.

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