E-mail communications in family practice - What do patients expect?

OBJECTIVE Many health care providers and patients are exploring the feasibi lity of using Email to address a variety of medical issues. We wanted to de termine the proportion of our patient population with E-mail access, determ ine their willingness to use this technology to expedite communication with health care providers, and assess their expectations of response times. STUDY DESIGN A cross-sectional, in-person prevalence survey. POPULATION Patients (n=950) with scheduled appointments to see a primary ca re provider in 6 of 18 family practice clinics in a large health care deliv ery system in central Texas. OUTCOMES MEASURED The proportion of patients with E-mail access, their will ingness to use it, and their expectations regarding the timeliness of respo nses to their E-mail queries about selected clinical services. RESULTS Overall, 54.3% of the patients reported having E-mail access, with significant variation among the 6 clinics(33%-75%) Reported areas of strong est desire for using E-mail were to request prescription refills (90%), for nonurgent consultations (87%), and to obtain routine laboratory results or test reports (84%). Patients' expectations regarding the timeliness of res ponses to their Email queries varied by clinical service. For laboratory re sults, their expectations were: less than 9 hours, 21% 9 to 24 hours, 53%; and more than 24 hours, 26%. CONCLUSIONS Most patients attending family practice clinics in central Texa s have E-mail access and indicate they would use it to request prescription refills, for nonurgent consultations, and to obtain routine laboratory res ults or test reports. Regardless of sex or race, patients have high expecta tions that these tasks can be completed within a relatively short time.