Gender-Based Differences in Patient Satisfaction With Telemedicine Visits

Objective: Telemedicine addresses limitations in patient access, health care costs, and time spent by patients for health care visits. However, gender-based differences in patient satisfaction with this method are unclear. Our study aimed to evaluate gender-based differences in patient satisfaction for telemedicine (both video and telephone) and in-person health care visits. Methods: Patients were randomly selected to complete a patient satisfaction survey regarding their health care experiences after outpatient medical appointments at a large academic institution. Results: Of 476,777 total respondents, most patients were women (47.5%) and men (37.3%), with fewer patients in the categories transgender, other, or unknown/choose not to disclose (15.2%). Women and men were both satisfied with telemedicine by video or telephone (83.3% women versus 84.5% men rated their visit 5/5) and in-person visits (84.1% women versus 85.7% men rated their visit 5/5). Conclusions: Men and women were nearly equally satisfied with telemedicine and in-person visits, although both genders were slightly less satisfied with telemedicine video visits than in-person visits. The findings indicate that the ongoing integration of telemedicine into clinical practice could serve as a satisfactory alternative to in-person consultations for all patients.