Deployed provider satisfaction with infectious disease teleconsulation

The Army Knowledge Online provides an e-mail service to assist deployed health care providers with specialty consultation. This performance improvement project evaluated the impact and utility of the infectious disease Army Knowledge Online teleconsultation service. Health care providers using the service from January 2010 through December 2010 were emailed a 9-question survey. The survey sought to determine if teleconsultation changed care or evacuation plan, and if responses were timely and clear. 123 consults were received, primarily from Afghanistan (58) and Iraq (26), and primarily regarding U.S. service members: (Army-36, Navy-18, Air Force-10, and Marines-3). Consults were answered on average in 3.3 hours. Completed surveys were obtained from 87 of the total 123 consultations. Responses to survey questions were as follows [scored on a 5-point scale from 1 (no, not at all) to 5 (yes, absolutely)]: Response Helpful (4.6), Response Changed Care (3.3), Response Changed Evacuation Plan (1.8), If Evacuation Plan Changed; was Evacuation Prevented (2.4), Response Timely (4.8), Response Verbose (1.1), Recommendations Clear (4.6), Too Many Recommendations (1.2), and Response Answered Your Question (4.8). The infectious disease teleconsultation service provides timely, helpful, and relevant feedback and plays an important role in influencing patient evacuation plan.