PUBLIC HOSPITAL EFFICIENCY IN SAUDI ARABIA: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF STAKEHOLDERS' VIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHANGE
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Keywords
hospital efficiency, public hospitals, key informants interviews, health policy, qualitative analysis, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Abstract
Objective Although there is a lot of written on efficiency, there is very little qualitative data on what factors contribute to hospitals being efficient. Researchers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) set out to identify the causes of inefficient health care delivery in public hospitals and find ways to improve them. Methods From July through September of 2019, we used a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews. Hospital administrators and legislators from all throughout the country participated, having been hand-picked for the study. A thematic approach was used to analyse the data in Nvivo 12. Setting Key informants of Ministry of health in the KSA. Final Product Public hospitals in KSA are notoriously inefficient, and respondents named a wide variety of neighbourhood, facility, and health system-wide problems as the culprits. Several factors were found to significantly affect hospital efficiency, including incompetent management, a lack of long-term objectives and plans, ineffective administrative leadership, and the absence of performance monitoring. The efficiency level was determined by taking into account the conditions of the healthcare staff in terms of their abilities, authority, and psychological aspects. Another reason for the inefficiency was the fact that the right health informatics system was not in place, which meant that the right data couldn't be used to make decisions. Respondents at the community level cited a lack of data on community and patient healthcare needs and expectations as a major obstacle to effective service delivery. Respondents suggested that hospitals make better use of their resources by allocating them wisely, bolstering their staff's capacity, and using data on community health needs to influence service delivery decisions. In summary, Public hospitals in KSA continue to have a major problem with health service inefficiency, according to the study. Improving hospital performance requires extensive training on optimal resource utilisation and raising awareness among key players in health systems. With so little information available on the subject in KSA and the greater Gulf area, more studies are required to fill in the gaps in our understanding of hospital efficiency.
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