This study examined the effectiveness of using the Internet to teach consumers about quality health care, compared consumer definitions of quality health care prior to and following completion of the Internet experience, and compared ratings of learning, satisfaction and value of the Internet instruction between consumers who completed the Internet intervention alone and consumers who completed the Internet intervention and interacted with a nurse. A total of 34 people from a community library participated in this randomized comparative study. The intervention was effective in increasing consumer knowledge of quality care from pre- to post-test. Although there were no significant differences between the two groups in knowledge gain, consumers in the interaction group had significantly higher scores on usefulness of the information in assessing the quality of care they are receiving from their health-care providers. (Contains 1 table, 3 figures and 2 notes.)