A telephone survey of patient satisfaction with realtime telemedicine in a rural community in Colombia

We conducted a telephone survey of all patients referred to a realtime telemedicine consultation at the Centre for Telehealth in Bogotá. Over a six-month period, 281 teleconsultations were conducted, and we were able to retrieve telephone numbers for 156 patients. Of these, 121 patients (78%) agreed to answer the questionnaire. Eighty percent of the respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with the teleconsultation and 63% would use telemedicine again. Sixty-five percent thought that telemedicine improved their medical care. More than 50% believed that telemedicine had a positive effect in terms of medical care improvement, time- and cost-savings. Twenty-seven percent felt that teleconsultation was not as good as a traditional face-to-face consultation. Lack of familiarity with ICT did not appear to act as a major barrier to telemedicine, and cognitive factors may be more important in acceptability to patients and their satisfaction. The results of the present study may also be relevant to the poorest countries of the world, where two-thirds of the population live in rural areas.