title: Satisfaction with rural rheumatology telemedicine service.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess patient satisfaction with the rheumatology telemedicine service provided to a rural town in northern Australia.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective, questionnaire-based exploratory study of patients seen at the Mount Isa (rural town) rheumatology telemedicine clinics during 2012 was undertaken. Control groups included patients travelling over 3 h to be seen face-to-face in Townsville (tertiary referral centre), and patients seen at the infrequent face-to-face clinic in Mount Isa. A 5-point Likert scale was used to explore themes of communication, confidentiality, physical examination, rapport, medication safety and access.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This study evaluated 107 rheumatology outpatients (49 telemedicine, 46 face-to-face Townsville, 12 face-to-face Mount Isa). Patients seen in Mount Isa travelled a median of < 10 km for either the telemedicine or local face-to-face appointments. The patients attending the Townsville face-to-face clinic travelled a median of 354 km. New patients comprised 14% of consultations. Satisfaction with themes related to quality-of-care was high with over 90% selecting 'agree' or 'strongly agree' to these questions. Comparing models of care, there were no statistically significant differences in the rates of those selecting 'strongly agree' across questions, apart from a single question related to rapport which favored the Mount Isa face-to-face model (P = 0.018). When asked whether they would rather travel to Townsville than participate in a telemedicine consultation, 63% of patients selected 'disagree' (17%) or 'strongly disagree' (46%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that patients are satisfied with a rheumatology telemedicine service, and may prefer this to extensive travelling. Evaluation in other settings is recommended before generalizing this finding.
authors.affiliation: The Townsville Hospital, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Katherine A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Poulsen
authors.forename: Catherine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Millen
authors.forename: Umayal I
authors.initials: UI
authors.lastname: Lakshman
authors.forename: Petra G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Buttner
authors.forename: Lynden J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003142:Communication; D003219:Confidentiality; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010808:Physical Examination; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011793:Queensland; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012219:Rheumatology / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014186:Transportation
keywords: patient satisfaction; rural health; telehealth; telemedicine; telerheumatology; video consultation