Gender-Based Differences in Patient Satisfaction With Telemedicine Visits

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Digital Health
• Patient Experience

Background:

• Telemedicine offers solutions for healthcare access, cost, and patient time constraints.
• Understanding gender-based patient satisfaction is crucial for equitable telemedicine adoption.
• Previous research has not clearly defined gender disparities in satisfaction with virtual care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate gender-based differences in patient satisfaction across telemedicine (video and telephone) and in-person healthcare visits.
• To compare satisfaction levels between various healthcare delivery modalities.
• To inform the integration of telemedicine into routine clinical practice.

Main Methods:

• A large-scale patient satisfaction survey was administered to outpatients at an academic institution.
• Patients were randomly selected to report on their recent healthcare experiences.
• Data from 476,777 respondents were analyzed to compare satisfaction by gender and visit type.

Main Results:

• Overall patient satisfaction was high across all visit types, with men and women reporting similar satisfaction levels.
• Women reported 83.3% satisfaction with telemedicine and 84.1% with in-person visits.
• Men reported 84.5% satisfaction with telemedicine and 85.7% with in-person visits, with slight preference for in-person consultations.

Conclusions:

• Men and women exhibit nearly equal satisfaction with both telemedicine and in-person healthcare.
• Telemedicine video visits were slightly less satisfactory than in-person visits for both genders.
• Telemedicine presents a satisfactory alternative to in-person consultations for diverse patient populations.