User satisfaction with asynchronous telemedicine: a study of users of Santa Catarina's system of telemedicine and telehealth.

User satisfaction analyses in synchronous telemedicine and teleconsultation environments have been widely performed and generally show satisfied users. In the field of asynchronous telemedicine, however, satisfaction studies were performed only in one single location or with a restricted set of users. With the aim of offering an exemplar evaluation of the impact of the statewide use of a large-scale asynchronous telemedicine network on the satisfaction of the involved users, this study presents the results obtained from a survey of the perceived quality of the service by both patients and healthcare staff. For this purpose, a survey with satisfaction questionnaires was performed with 564 patients from seven upstate municipalities and 56 healthcare professionals from 46 municipalities, using a methodology from the process improvement field. The collected data were quantified and underwent statistical analysis, which showed a clear perception of the improvement in the quality of service by both patients and healthcare professionals. The present findings also showed that both patients and healthcare professionals felt that introducing these new technologies was a positive step, even in upstate areas and when they involved great changes in the usual processes of primary care.