Table 2.
Content of patient- or caregiver-initiated message threads
| Message content categories | Overall (N = 945) |
Site 1 (N = 461) |
Site 2 (N = 484) |
Difference between sites |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N (%) of messages with content | Mean hours to first reply | N (%) of messages with content | Mean hours to first reply | N (%) of messages with content | Mean hours to first reply | Message content (Fisher’s exact test) | Time to first reply(t test) | |
| Medication renewal or refill | 446 (47.2) | 28.0 | 221 (47.9) | 19.3 | 225 (46.5) | 37.1 | 0.6958 | <.0001 |
| Scheduling | 166 (17.6) | 19.7 | 113 (24.5) | 15.7 | 53 (11.0) | 29.1 | <.0001 | 0.0020 |
| Medication issue | 122 (12.9) | 38.5 | 49 (10.6) | 37.8 | 73 (15.1) | 38.9 | 0.0421 | 0.9472 |
| Health issue | 120 (12.7) | 28.9 | 33 (7.2) | 19.9 | 87 (18.0) | 33.2 | <.0001 | 0.0764 |
| Referral | 66 (7.0) | 31.4 | 43 (9.3) | 25.5 | 23 (4.8) | 42.3 | 0.0070 | 0.0931 |
| Administrative | 61 (6.5) | 34.4 | 23 (5.0) | 27.6 | 38 (7.9) | 38.4 | 0.0851 | 0.2886 |
| Test result | 51 (5.4) | 28.0 | 22 (4.8) | 11.0 | 29 (6.0) | 40.1 | 0.4721 | 0.0404 |
| Test issue | 49 (5.2) | 36.9 | 27 (5.9) | 44.4 | 22 (4.5) | 27.1 | 0.3819 | 0.6260 |
| FYI informing | 46 (4.9) | 25.1 | 22 (4.8) | 22.2 | 24 (5.0) | 28.2 | 1.0000 | 0.5195 |
| My HealtheVet/ SM-related | 39 (4.1) | 27.1 | 26 (5.6) | 15.4 | 13 (2.7) | 52.9 | 0.0322 | 0.0007 |
| Appreciation | 37 (3.9) | 22.1 | 30 (6.5) | 14.7 | 7 (1.4) | 49.8 | <.0001 | 0.0029 |
| Self-reporting | 26 (2.8) | 24.9 | 17 (3.7) | 14.4 | 9 (1.9) | 53.0 | 0.1108 | 0.0207 |
| Life issue | 14 (1.5) | 21.6 | 10 (2.2) | 9.5 | 4 (0.8) | 130.3 | 0.1084 | <.0001 |
| Complaint | 14 (1.5) | 28.8 | 11 (2.4) | 26.7 | 3 (0.6) | 38.2 | 0.0303 | 0.6818 |
| Other | 14 (1.5) | 15.0 | 12 (2.6) | 12.5 | 2 (0.4) | 34.9 | 0.0059 | 0.2956 |