title: Patient satisfaction with telemedicine: a comparison study of geriatric patients.
abstract: Studies of patient satisfaction are continually needed to provide feedback to the medical community about rapidly changing telemedicine technology. We accumulated data during 1998 from geriatric patients living in a retirement community based on their experience with telemedicine (one encounter a week for eight weeks). Responses to the items on a Likert scale were generally positive. A similar study was conducted with random patients at the same site two and a half years later. The results were once again positive and appeared to show an even better response than those obtained in the previous study. Thus, although the pilot study was small (20 patients, 18 reporting), this trend may reflect an increased acceptance of telemedicine applications among geriatric patients. Larger studies are needed to substantiate this claim.
authors.affiliation: Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida 32224, USA. bratton.robert@mayo.edu
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Bratton
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Short
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003625:Data Collection; D005431:Florida; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000592:standards*