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Physician acceptance of a computerized health maintenance prompting program
B P Knight1, M S O'Malley, S W Fletcher
1Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27514.
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
|January 1, 1987
Summary
Physicians widely accept computerized prompting systems for health promotion and disease prevention (HP/DP) procedures. These systems improve care and physician attitudes, indicating a need for broader implementation in medical practices.
Area of Science:
- Medical Informatics
- General Medicine
- Preventive Medicine
Background:
- Computer prompting systems aid physicians in delivering health promotion/disease prevention (HP/DP) services.
- Physician acceptance is crucial for the sustained success of these health maintenance programs (HMP).
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess physician attitudes toward a computerized health maintenance program (HMP) prompting system after three years of use.
- To evaluate the impact of the HMP on physician practices and views regarding HP/DP procedures.
Main Methods:
- A survey was administered to faculty and residents in a general medicine teaching hospital group practice.
- The survey assessed physician agreement with HP/DP procedures, HMP enrollment beliefs, and overall system acceptance.
Main Results:
- A significant increase in agreement with periodic screenings for ongoing-care patients was observed (91% post-HMP vs. 56% pre-HMP).
- Physicians believed 87% of patients over 50 should be enrolled in the HMP, and 55% felt its loss would impair patient care.
- Most physicians (97%) would use a prompting system in future practice, preferring computer-based options (87%) and liking the reminders (65%).
Conclusions:
- The HMP demonstrated high physician acceptance and positively influenced attitudes toward HP/DP activities.
- Computerized prompting systems are effective tools for improving physician performance of HP/DP procedures and should be more widely adopted.