Patient impression and satisfaction of a self-administered, automated medical history-taking device in the Emergency...

We evaluated patient impressions and satisfaction of an innovative self-administered, hand-held touch-screen tablet to gather detailed medical information from emergency department (ED) patients in the waiting room prior to physician contact.

Adult, medically stable patients presenting to the ED at Los Angeles County Hospital used the PatientTouch™ system to answer a series of questions about their current history of present illness and past medical/surgical histories in English or Spanish. Patients then completed a survey rating their experience.

Among 173 participants, opinion of PatientTouch™ was strongly positive; 93.6% (95%CI 90.0-97.3%) felt the physical product was easy to hold and handle, and 97.1% (94.6-99.6%) felt the questions were detailed enough for them to fully describe their condition; 97.8% (95.4-100.0%) felt using PatientTouch™ would help them organize their thoughts and communicate better with their physician, 94.8% (91.4-98.1%) thought it would improve the quality of their care, and 97.1% (94.6-99.6%) expressed desire to use the product again in the future.

The study was conducted at a largely Hispanic county ED, and only patients with 1 of 6 pre-determined chief complaints participated. We did not include a control group to assess if perceived improvements in communication translated to measurable differences. In this pilot study, patients were highly satisfied with all aspects of the PatientTouch™ self-administered, hand-held, touch-screen tablet. Importantly, subjects felt it would help them better communicate with their doctor, would improve their overall quality of care and overwhelmingly expressed a desire to use it in the future.