The use of various appointment systems among patients visiting academic outpatient centers in Kerman and the evaluation of patients’ perspective and satisfaction

BACKGROUND: To optimize appointment systems, it is necessary to assess their users’ perspectives. This study aims to determine the use of various appointment systems among patients in academic outpatient centers and to investigate their perspectives and satisfaction. METHODS: This survey study was conducted on 332 patients or those accompanying patients in academic outpatient centers. A five-part questionnaire consisting of (1) demographic information, (2) willingness to use systems, (3) problems when using these systems, (4) problems after reserving the appointment, (5) recommendations and critics was used. The relationship between the system of interest and the available tools was examined by the Chi-square test, and the relationship between demographic characteristics and satisfaction was assessed using multiple regression. RESULTS: The participants’ overall satisfaction towards appointment systems, regardless of the type of system, was 49.12 ± 16.04 (out of 100). Satisfaction with the appointment system using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) was significantly higher than the other two systems (p = 0.03). Web-based application and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) were the most frequently used systems with 61% and 48%, respectively. More than half of those who had access to a telephone (56%) preferred the IVR appointment system, and most of those who had Internet access (71%) preferred the web-based application (p < 0.05). Among 137 participants who had access to both the Internet and telephone, 49% (n = 67) stated that they would rather arrange their appointment through the web-based application. CONCLUSION: The web-based application and IVR are the most frequently used and favorable appointment system among the patients or those accompanying patients. Despite the availability of the infrastructure, the participant had moderate satisfaction with these systems due to their failures. Therefore, to have more efficient systems and increase patients or those accompanying patients satisfaction with these systems, healthcare authorities should have a plan to solve the problems of these systemes and use the capacity of information resources to inform the community regarding these systems.