Measurement of inpatient experiences and satisfaction with saudi public hospital care using a standardised tool and protocol

The aim of this thesis was to research patient satisfaction and experience in Saudi Arabian hospitals. A secondary aim was to develop a validated patient experience tool and associated benchmarking protocols for Saudi Arabia that was based on the Victorian Patient Satisfaction Monitor (VPSM) in Australia. The VPSM is a tool that has been used in Victorian hospitals to monitor patient experience for the past ten years. The thesis commences with a comprehensive narrative review of the relevant research literatures. The main study within the thesis involved a large survey of recently discharged patients from Saudi Hospitals. Survey data were obtained from seventeen hospitals in Riyadh region in Saudi Arabia from a sample frame of 2125 patients. Of the 2125 distributed questionnaires, 1700 were returned and 1604 were found to be adequate for the data analysis, yielding a net response rate of 75.5 per cent. Analysis of the study data showed that the adapted VPSM instrument was a valid and reliable tool amongst Saudi hospital patient respondents. Cronbach alpha values for all of the six VPSM indices and the summary overall care index were found to be satisfactory. The reliability of the six indices ranged from a high of 0.954 for treatment information to a low of 0.849 for access and admission. The results show considerable variability across the patient groups from the surveyed hospitals. The patients’ mean overall care index score was found to vary considerably across the sampled hospitals (2.53 to 4.17). Among the six sub-indices, the lowest average score was achieved on the physical environment index (2.95) and the highest mean score was achieved on the treatment information index (3.61). The impacts of age, gender and remoteness of the hospital upon index scores were systematically modeled within the study. The modeling showed that there was an interaction effect between age and gender on patients’ satisfaction level. Moreover, the remoteness of the hospital significantly affected patients’ responses in terms of the access and admission index, general patient information index, physical and environmental index and discharge and follow-up index. Based on these results, it is recommended that the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia adopts the adapted VPSM for measuring patients’ satisfaction and experiences in all Saudi public hospitals. The expected results for VPSM adoption in Saudi Arabia will be an enhanced healthcare delivery system and more effective health resources utilization.