Patient satisfaction with telemedicine

The objective of this study was to evaluate patient satisfaction when telemedicine is used for clinical consultations. Patient satisfaction data from 495 real-time interactive telemedicine clinical consultations at the Telemedicine Center at East Carolina University School of Medicine in Greenville, NC were collected and evaluated. Patient satisfaction was examined in relation to patient age, gender, race, income, education, and insurance. Overall patient satisfaction was found to be 98.3%. Because so few patients were dissatisfied with their telemedicine consultation, correlation with the sociodemographic variables was limited. Patients are highly satisfied with consultations through telemedicine, and report that care was easier to obtain. The sample size in this study is larger than other reported telemedicine studies, but its findings are consistent with those of previous studies. In non-telemedicine settings where patient satisfaction has been studied, several significant factors have been correlated with dissatisfaction. These factors include appointment scheduling, travel time, and patient involvement in the physical examination. In telemedicine, the same factors may be associated with higher patient satisfaction rates. To determine correlation between demographic factors and satisfaction, additional studies using different constructs relating to patient satisfaction are needed.