Satisfaction towards virtual consultation services and its associated factors among patients in Malaysian public primary care

BACKGROUND: The Ministry of Health (MOH) has introduced the Virtual Consultation Service (VCS) in government health clinics in Malaysia since 2019, to connect patients and healthcare providers virtually using video conferencing platforms such as Google Meet, MySejahtera and Health Information Exchange. Despite being the largest rollout of telemedicine in the country and MOH's planning to scale up the service in public primary care, little is known about patient satisfaction and its contributing factors towards the VCS. Therefore this study aimed to determine patient satisfaction with VCS in public primary care and its associated factors. METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted among patients who attended outpatient service at selected government health clinics in West and East Malaysia using online data collection. A total of 411 patients were recruited through stratified and systematic random sampling by using a Malay-validated Telehealth Usability, Acceptability, and Satisfaction Questionnaire (TUASQ). Data were analysed using simple and multiple linear regression. RESULTS: Patients reported a relatively high mean satisfaction score for VCS (20.87 out of 25; SD = 3.61), indicating generally positive perceptions of the service. Adjusted model revealed that acceptability has emerged as the strongest predictor of satisfaction (β = 0.410, p < 0.001), followed by usability (β = 0.382, p < 0.001), explaining 89.4% of the variance in satisfaction scores. CONCLUSIONS: Patients were highly satisfied with VCS in Malaysian public primary care using multiple virtual platforms. Acceptability and usability of VCS were determinants of satisfaction, indicating that patients value ease of use, convenience, privacy and quality interaction beyond their demographic characteristics. Policymakers should leverage these study findings to guide the scale-up and optimisation of this health service in the future.