Patient impression and satisfaction of a self-administered, automated medical history-taking device in the Emergency Department.
BACKGROUND
We evaluated patient impressions and satisfaction of an innovative self-administered, hand-held touch-screen tablet to gather detailed medical information from emergency department (ED) patients in the waiting room prior to physician contact.


METHODS
Adult, medically stable patients presenting to the ED at Los Angeles County Hospital used the PatientTouch™ system to answer a series of questions about their current history of present illness and past medical/surgical histories in English or Spanish. Patients then completed a survey rating their experience.


RESULTS
Among 173 participants, opinion of PatientTouch™ was strongly positive; 93.6% (95%CI 90.0-97.3%) felt the physical product was easy to hold and handle, and 97.1% (94.6-99.6%) felt the questions were detailed enough for them to fully describe their condition; 97.8% (95.4-100.0%) felt using PatientTouch™ would help them organize their thoughts and communicate better with their physician, 94.8% (91.4-98.1%) thought it would improve the quality of their care, and 97.1% (94.6-99.6%) expressed desire to use the product again in the future.


CONCLUSIONS
The study was conducted at a largely Hispanic county ED, and only patients with 1 of 6 pre-determined chief complaints participated. We did not include a control group to assess if perceived improvements in communication translated to measurable differences. In this pilot study, patients were highly satisfied with all aspects of the PatientTouch™ self-administered, hand-held, touch-screen tablet. Importantly, subjects felt it would help them better communicate with their doctor, would improve their overall quality of care and overwhelmingly expressed a desire to use it in the future.
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Department of Emergency Medicine, Los Angeles, California.
Sanjay
S
Arora
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Department of Emergency Medicine, Los Angeles, California.
Andrew D
AD
Goldberg
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Department of Emergency Medicine, Los Angeles, California.
Michael
M
Menchine
D001294:Attitude to Health; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D008487:Medical History Taking / Q000379:methods*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires