Abstract
BackgroundEmail is the most important mechanism introduced since the telephone for developing interpersonal relationships. This study was designed to provide insight into how patients are using email to request information or services from their healthcare providers.MethodsFollowing IRB approval, we reviewed all electronic mail (e-mail) messages sent between five study clinicians and their patients over a one-month period. We used a previously described taxonomy of patient requests to categorize all patient requests contained in the messages. We measured message volume, frequency, length and response time for all messages sent to and received by these clinicians.ResultsOn average the 5 physicians involved in this study received 40 messages per month, each containing approximately 139 words. Replies sent by the physicians contained 39 words on average and 59.4% of them were sent within 24 hours. Patients averaged 1 request per message. Requests for information on medications or treatments, specific symptoms or diseases, and requests for actions regarding medications or treatments accounted for 75% of all requests. Physicians fulfilled 80.2% of all these requests. Upon comparison of these data to that obtained from traditional office visits, it appears that the potential exists for email encounters to substitute for some percentage of office visits.ConclusionElectronic messaging is an important method for physicians and patients to communicate and further develop their relationship. While many physicians worry that either the number or length of messages from their patients will overwhelm them, there is no evidence to support this. In fact, the evidence suggests that many patient requests, formerly made over the telephone or during office visits, can be addressed via email thus potentially saving both patients and physicians time.
Highlights
Email is the most important mechanism introduced since the telephone for developing interpersonal relationships
Selection of participants Following approval by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research Institutional Review Board (IRB), we sent an e-mail message to 15 Northwest Permanente physicians with shared, patient-only email accounts, asking them to participate in this study
Analysis of the types of patient requests for information and action in the e-mail messages closely mirrored those found by UC Davis researchers during their analysis of patient requests during actual outpatient visits, the average number of requests per office visit was 5 times greater than in the email encounters
Summary
Email is the most important mechanism introduced since the telephone for developing interpersonal relationships. This study was designed to provide insight into how patients are using email to request information or services from their healthcare providers. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 2003, 3 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6947/3/11 the first three) developed in the history of the human race [2]. Those who have used email, along with those who have studied it extensively, argue that it is the most important mechanism since the telephone for developing interpersonal relationships [3]. In particular we need to understand how patients are using email to communicate with their healthcare providers
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