Computers in Exam Rooms

Excerrpted from a Modern Physician article (Free, registration required)

"Computers in exam rooms lead to high patient satisfaction: study"

Does putting a computer terminal in the exam room help the physician-patient relationship or does it add a distraction? According to Kaiser Permanente scientist John Hsu, M.D., "when used well," computers help improve patients' satisfaction and boost their understanding about their individual conditions.

Hsu's view on the matter follows his recent study of how 313 patients reacted when eight physicians at a primary-care medical office building in the Portland, Ore., area installed terminals in their exam rooms. Physician-patient encounters were videotaped and patients were interviewed before computers were added, the first month they were added and seven months later.

In a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Hsu stated that patients rating their satisfaction as excellent rose to 62.8% from 55.3%.

"Computers in the exam room are a potential barrier: They can suck away the physician's attention and potentially slow things down as physicians enter data or document their activities," Hsu said. "Fortunately, we found that those two things did not happen."

"Physicians seem to be using the tools effectively and the patients did seem to respond very well," he said, explaining that doctors used the terminal to show patients copies of their X-rays or to look at line graphs of how their blood pressure may be responding to medication.

Using the computer this way led to improved patient understanding of their conditions and treatment. According to the study, the percentage of patients reporting excellent satisfaction in the comprehension of their diagnosis or treatment rose to 57.3% from 46.4%.