Does computer use in patient-physician encounters influence patient satisfaction?

OBJECTIVE To assess whether computer use by physicians during the patient-physician encounter influences patient satisfaction in a family medicine teaching centre. DESIGN Cross-sectional mailed survey. SETTING Queen's University Family Medicine Centre in Kingston, Ont. PARTICIPANTS A random sample of 300 patients from the family medicine centre, all of whom were older than 18 years of age and had visited their family physicians in the past year. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Patient preference for or against computer use by the physician and effect of computer use on various aspects of patient-physician interaction. RESULTS The response rate was 58.3%. Most respondents (51.4%) had no preference about computer use in the office, and most (88.0%) were either "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with their visits. When assessing the influence of patient and visit characteristics on computer preference, only the "doctor's attitude toward computer use" had a positive correlation with patient preference (P=.0012). Respondents were most likely to indicate "positive" or "very positive" effects of computer use on all aspects of the patient-physician interaction, except "level of distraction of the doctor" and "time spent chatting about nonmedical matters," which were most commonly reported as being unaffected by computer use. Specifically, 57.1% of respondents thought that computer use had either a "positive" or "very positive" effect on their overall satisfaction with their visits, with another 30.3% believing there was no effect. CONCLUSION Most patients expressed no preference for whether or not computers were used in their physicians' offices, although computers did seem to have a positive effect on overall satisfaction with visits. Doctors' attitudes toward computer use influenced their patients' preferences.