Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
Graduate Institute of Communication Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Jan 9;16(2):171. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16020171.
In the Internet era, many web-based appointment systems for hospitals have been established to replace traditional systems. Our study aimed to highlight the features of online appointment systems for hospitals in Taiwan, where patients can visit outpatient departments without a referral.
All hospitals online appointment systems were surveyed in October 2018. Features of first-visit registrations were analyzed and stratified according to the hospitals' accreditation levels.
Of the 417 hospitals, 59.7% (249) had public online appointment systems. For first-visit patients, only 199 hospitals offered the option of making appointments online from 7 to 98 (mean 38.9) days prior to the appointment itself. Before appointments, 68 (34.2%) hospitals recommended specialties for patients to choose according to their symptoms, and only 11 (5.5%) had a function for sending messages to doctors. After appointments, 176 (88.4%) provided links to real-time monitoring of outpatient service progress.
More than half of the hospitals in Taiwan have public online appointment systems. However, most of these systems simply fulfill the function of registration, and rarely take the opportunity to improve efficiency by gathering information regarding patients' medical history or reasons for making the appointment.
在互联网时代，许多医院建立了基于网络的预约系统以取代传统系统。本研究旨在突显台湾地区无转诊预约的门诊患者可使用的线上预约系统的特点。
我们于 2018 年 10 月调查了所有医院的线上预约系统。根据医院的认证级别，分析首次就诊注册的特点并进行分层。
417 家医院中，59.7%（249 家）设有公共线上预约系统。对于初诊患者，仅 199 家医院可在预约前 7 至 98 天（平均 38.9 天）内进行在线预约。预约前，有 68 家（34.2%）医院根据患者症状推荐专科供其选择，仅有 11 家（5.5%）医院具有与医生发消息的功能。预约后，有 176 家（88.4%）医院提供实时查看门诊服务进度的链接。
台湾地区有超过一半的医院设有公共线上预约系统。然而，这些系统大多仅满足挂号功能，很少有机会通过收集患者病史或预约原因等信息来提高效率。
