97% Of Patients Approve Of HIT Use

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

A multi-national survey of patients found the vast majority approve of their doctors using technology during visits.

A survey of 3,000 patients in the U.S., U.K., and Germany reveals patients don’t mind technology in the doctor’s office. In fact, according to MobiHealth News, they seem to enjoy it.

“While physicians feel EHRs slow them down, interfere with face-to-face care, and intrude upon their patient relationships, patients don’t see it that way,” explains Nuance, which conducted the survey. Seventy percent of people surveyed report they have noticed a difference in the amount of technology being used by their doctor over the last five years. A huge portion, 97 percent, is comfortable with it. The technologies most patients reported feeling comfortable with are desktop computers or laptops, followed by mobile devices such as a tablet or smartphone, telemedicine, and image-sharing.

Fifty-eight percent of people feel the use of technology in the exam room positively affects their healthcare experience. iHealth Beat reports 73 percent of patients claimed that an important quality in medical care was “time for discussion,” while 66 percent listed “verbal communication of specific recommendations.”

“Physicians just don’t spend enough time with their patients nor do they look at their patients anymore. I hear that complaint from patients on a regular basis,” Dr. Mark Michelman, vice president of medical affairs at BayCare Health Network in Clearwater, FL, said in a statement. “The electronic medical record and mandated regulatory documentation are requiring the physicians to spend much more time on the computer and allowing them less time to spend with their patients. This has a very negative effect on the patients who want the physician to spend more time with them and actually have eye contact with them, not with the computer.”