title: The impact of patient-physician Web messaging on provider productivity.
abstract: Patients increasingly want electronic access to providers, but physicians have been slow to offer e-access, fearing they will be overwhelmed by unreimbursed patient messages. This article reports on efforts to measure how patient-provider Web messaging affects physician productivity. To measure productivity, researchers analyzed the work of a group of physicians using a secure Web messaging system, compared with a control group that did not use the system. Results showed that physicians using the electronic media to communicate had about a 10 percent increase in productivity. Secure Web messaging's benefits also outweigh those of e-mail in increasing productivity and allaying concerns of physicians.
authors.affiliation: University of California Davis Health System, Sacramento, USA.
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Liederman
authors.forename: Jerry C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Victor H
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: Baquero
authors.forename: Paul G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Seites
mesh_terms: D004526:Efficiency; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D017216:Telemedicine; D014481:United States