Patient satisfaction with multispecialty interactive teleconsultations

Satisfaction with teleconsulting was evaluated for 96 patients using the Kentucky TeleCare telemedicine network. Consultant specialties included psychiatry (41), dermatology (24), clinical nutrition (20), anaesthesia (3), infectious diseases (3), rheumatology (2), internal medicine (1), neurology (1) and paediatric pulmonology (1). The results indicated a high level of patient satisfaction, with a mean score of 6.8 (on a 7-point Likert scale with 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree) for the question 'Overall, I was very satisfied with today's consultation'. The results indicated that the majority of patients were satisfied with the telemedicine encounter although a minority, 16%, would have preferred to have seen the specialist in person.