Satisfaction with a computerized practitioner order-entry system at two military health care facilities

User satisfaction with a computerized practitioner order-entry (POE) system at two military hearth care facilities was studied. A survey was mailed in May 1998 to providers authorized to enter drug order s into the Composite Hearth Care System [CHCS) (including two clinical phar macists) and pharmacy staff members at two department of defense (DOD] medi cal treatment facilities. Of 189 questionnaires with the potential to be returned completed, 112 were usable, for a net response rate of 59.3%. The internal consistency of the survey items measuring user satisfaction (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.86. The t ypical respondent was male,was employed by the DOD, had fair to excellent c omputer and typing skills, had received eight hours or less of training on the CHCS POE system, had been using the system for two years or less, and h ad been a health care practitioner for 10 years or less. Overall, users wer e satisfied with the POE system (mean +/- S.D. rating of 3.78 +/- 0.87 on a 5-point scale where 5 represented the highest satisfaction level). Satisfa ction was correlated most strongly with ratings of the POE system's efficie ncy. Nonphysicians were more satisfied, on average, than physicians. No sig nificant relationship was found between other individual characteristics an d satisfaction, Qualitative analysis reinforced the finding that users were interested in efficiency issues. Overall, users at two military health care facilities were satisfied with a computerized POE system. Satisfaction was most strongly correlated with th e perceived efficiency of the system.