Group Health Cooperative conducted a consumer satisfaction survey of its members who are using either secure messaging or Rx online services. In October, 2001, Group Health Cooperative, a 600,000 member HMO located in Washington state, launched s secure messaging application within its MyGroupHealth web site to its members and with over 300 of its primary care physicians participating. In December, 2001, Group Health launched online pharmacy functionality. In May of 2002, Group Health undertook a consumer satisfaction study to determine members' satisfaction with the new web services. The sampling frame was determined by users, who are by definition only Group Health members, of either service between January and April, 2002. Satisfaction with examined on a 6 point scale for each service.

Findings: First, users are extremely satisfied with each of the functions, which is in agreement with the Harris study (April, 2002) with an actual population of users. Second, a surprising number of users (58%) expressed agreement that they would reenroll with Group Health because of the web functionality. These are significant findings that confirm the overall value of providing web functionality to health system members, and the value of having this type of web functionality as part of a health care organizations overall strategy.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the key research findings.
• Understand the research design used.
• Understand the implications of the research by developing their own
  follow up questions.