Fimea’s customer satisfaction improved
Customers are more satisfied with Fimea’s operation. According to a recent study, Fimea’s total score was 8.13 (on a scale of 1–10), when it was 8.01 in the previous study in 2019.
Fimea’s customer satisfaction survey was conducted in November–December 2022. The target group consisted of Fimea’s customers, partners and stakeholder groups. The aim was to map their satisfaction, opinions and view of our operations. The study was implemented together with Valve and Feelback.
A total of 308 representatives of Fimea’s stakeholders from various customer groups responded to the survey. The most responses were received from employees in health care units. Licence holders and marketing authorisation holders also responded actively.
General questions concerning Fimea’s operations were used to assess communication and practices, smoothness of service, employees’ competence and development. The scale was from 5 to 1 where 5 = completely agree and 1 = completely disagree. In addition to general questions, the responders were given the opportunity to select the most familiar operations or services and answer related more specific questions.
Fimea is considered a reliable source of drug information
Fimea is considered a reliable source of drug information in Finland (4.49). The respondents also found that Fimea has an active role in the pharmaceutical sector (4.12). The score for both having an active national and international role in the pharmaceutical sector clearly improved from the previous survey. The most room for improvement was in creating new and innovative practices (3.09), but that score also improved compared to 2019.
As means of interaction, the respondents clearly preferred email (67%) and e-services (52%). Representatives of organisations and members of the partner network preferred meetings.
Fimea's personnel was found to be very competent (4.06), and the communication skills of the personnel (3.73) had improved from the previous survey.
Services should be streamlined
With regard to practices, Fimea received best scores for independence (4.35), responsible performance of tasks (4.17) and operating in an expert manner (4.13). The most room for development was in familiarity with the customer’s operating environment (3.44).
With regard to smoothness of services, the average score for all claims remains below 4.0, and development is especially required in smoothness of processes (3.38) and reaching the right person (3.31). Also, the score for accessibility was lower than in the previous survey. Same goes for allocating supervision to appropriate targets.
The respondents were also able to evaluate the most familiar functions. Particularly, sufficient guidelines and advice for clinical drug trials and special permits did better than in the previous survey. However, justifications for requests for further clarification concerning marketing authorisations and the clarity and comprehensibility of inspection reports should be improved.
Overall, the respondents found that Fimea had improved in all assessed areas during the last year.