The Effect of a Pre-consultation Tablet-Based Questionnaire on Changes in Consultation Time for First-Visit Patients With Diabetes: A Single-Case Design Preliminary Study

Background and objective It has been reported that physicians spend about 50% of their time in the outpatient department doing non-face-to-face patient work, such as charting and desk activities. Work outside of patient consultations is often considered a burden. In this study, we aimed to examine whether the use of pre-consultation tablet-based questionnaires for first-visit diabetic patients had any impact on the time spent for consultation. Methods The sole participant was a diabetologist with more than 20 years of experience. The time spent in the clinic was compared via a single-case experimental design (ABAB) using paper- and tablet-based questionnaires for a total of 20 first-visit diabetic patients. Results The median pre-clinical time without patients was significantly shorter in the tablet group than in the paper group (two minutes and 45 seconds vs. five minutes and 39 seconds; p=0.003). The median clinical time with patients in the tablet group was significantly longer than that in the paper group (19 minutes and 37 seconds vs. 11 minutes and 25 seconds; p=0.026). The total clinical time was not significantly different between the two groups (p=0.25). Conclusions Our results suggest that tablet-based pre-consultation questionnaires may have an impact on the allocation of time for medical examinations and improve the quality of diabetes care.