[What do our clients want? : Is speed all that matters?]

The pathology department of the University Hospital Bonn conducted a survey among all its clients in order to evaluate their expectations concerning the diagnostics and service from a university department of pathology. A questionnaire including 30 topics was sent by mail to all senders. The questions could be answered using a scale ranging from "0" ("not important at all") to "10" ("very important"). Most important for the clients were "speed of communication of the diagnosis", "personal availability of the responsible pathologist by telephone" and "friendliness of contact". Less important were "autopsy diagnostics", "24 h on-call duty" and "service on Saturdays". A critical analysis of the results made us realize that pathology is threatened to be seen exclusively as a service discipline and that we should convey its methods and possibilities and also its requirements better to clinicians.