Objective This study quantified the ease of use for patients and providers of a microcomputer-based computer assisted interview (CAI) system for the serial collection of the American College of Rheumatology `Patient Assessment' questionnaire (ACRPA) in routine outpatient clinical care in an urban rheumatology clinic.

Design Cross-Sectional Survey.

Measurements The answers of 93 respondents to a computer use questionnaire mailed to the 130 participants of a previous validation study of the CAI system were analyzed. For a 30 month period, the percentage of patient visits during which complete ACRPA questionnaire data was obtained with the system was determined.

Results The computer system provided cost and labor savings in the collection of 2476 questionnaires for 2964 patients visits over 30 months for a capture rate of 83.5%. In the last 12 of those months, 1035 questionnaires were collected for 1062 patient visits (97.5% capture). There was no missing data. The prestudy capture rate was 13.5% with 33% of surveys having complete data. Patients rated the overall usability of the system as good (M = 1.34, SD = 0.61) on a scale of 0 - 2 where 2 = good, but expressed difficulty with mouse manipulation and concerns about the privacy of the data entry environment.

Conclusion The system proved easy to use and cost effective for the (mostly) unaided self-entry of self-report data for each patient for each visit in routine outpatient clinical care in an urban rheumatology clinic.