Satisfaction and Perception of Emergency Department Personnel on Electronic Triage System

The Electronic Triage System (ETS) has recently been developed to be used in hospital emergency rooms. To assure the quality and improve the system, it is necessary to study the user's perception continuously. This study presents the results of survey on satisfaction and perception of Emergency Department (ED) staff with the ETS. In this descriptive cross-sectional study the data collection tool was a researcher-designed questionnaire that includes two sections which were multi-choice and open ended questions. The study variables were gender, occupation, computer skill, Internet skill, and the daily use of computer (in minutes). The content validity of the questionnaire was assessed by the expert panel. For reliability of the questionnaire Cronbach's Alpha and for assessing statistical significance the Independent Samples T-test and Spearman's coefficient were used and analyzed using SPSS version 16. The content validity of the tool was approved with the scores of CVR= 0.93 and CVI= 0.96. Cronbach's alpha for all the questions was 0.979. The average scores of the aspects including User interface, Learning, System capability, Data entry and retrieval, Impact on patient care, and Overall perception in a range of 0 to 100 were 50, 51, 52, 42, 46, 36, and 42, respectively. Physicians in 5 aspects out of 7 expressed significantly more satisfaction. There was no association between use of computer and internet and the satisfaction. The main strengths of the ETS from the user's viewpoint were reducing patient waiting time, speeding up the works, improving confidentiality of patient data, and accuracy of triage. The questionnaire is a useful tool for its purpose. The comments that obtained in this study can be used as a basis for increasing user satisfaction with electronic triage system.