Purpose: The objective of the present study is to explore the perceptions of patient safety culture (PSC) among King Fahd University Hospital’s (KFUH) employees and to develop recommendations to overcome the factors that impede the integration of PSC in the study setting. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that assessed the level of PSC at KFUH. This study used the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture tool from all KFUH healthcare workers (n=900) in 2018. Findings: The response rate of the study was 67%. Findings show that KFUH excelled in three PSC composites: continuous organizational learning, feedback and communication about error, and frequency of events reported. In contrast, staffing, teamwork within units, and non-punitive response to error yielded low composite scores. Originality/Value: The strength of the present study was the use of a valid questionnaire that has been used widely in the literature with a large sample size, which yielded valid results. It is, to our knowledge, the first research study that analyzes health workers’ perceptions on patient safety culture in a teaching hospital in Eastern Province in KSA and compares it with Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Saudi Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC). Results from the study highlight the need to employ an adequate number of workers, implement continuous patient safety training programs, and adopt safety programs and policies.

Background: The objective of this study was to investigate the knowledge and attitudes of Saudi Arabian citizens towards telemedicine during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was designed to carry out this study. The electronic survey, prepared using Google Forms, was distributed to 1500 randomly selected citizens of Saudi Arabia. A total of 330 participants completed and returned the questionnaire. Basic statistics were used to describe the data.Results: The majority of the respondents (73.9%) were female. More than half of them (54.8%) were >35 y of age and had graduate or postgraduate degrees (65.5%). A total of 96.7% of the respondents were Saudis. Most of the participants (70.0%) were familiar with the term ‘telemedicine’ and thought that telemedicine (92.1%) could reduce transportation costs. Of the respondents, 58.8% had not seen a telemedicine system before and 67.0% indicated that they had not previously used telemedicine services. A total of 87.3% of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that telemedicine was a useful tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, more than half of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that telemedicine facilitates the diagnosis of people (58.8%), increases communication (58.2%), reduces clinic visits (85.9%) and performs tasks quickly (70.3%). Also, 51.5% of the respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that telemedicine affects patient privacy.Conclusions: The outcomes indicated that most of the participants had a positive attitude towards the use of telemedicine as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia. They believed that telemedicine saves time, labour and costs and is an effective tool to treat coronavirus patients at a safe distance. However, the government should develop programs to raise awareness in the population about the use of telemedicine for the treatment of various diseases that afflict the Saudi Arabian people. Likewise, a legal framework must be implemented to protect the privacy of patients and healthcare providers.

Background: Telehealth plays a key role in supporting health care systems and influencing methods of health care delivery. Government laws and medical operating protocols have been largely modified to provide remote care to reduce social contact and ensure a safer patient environment. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the Ministry of Health (MOH) introduced several forms of telemedicine as alternatives to face-to-face consultations in clinical settings. Objective: This study aimed to assess the awareness and utilization of telehealth services before and during the COVID-19 outbreak in the KSA. Methods: In this longitudinal study, we compared the awareness and utilization of 937-telephone health services (ie, a toll-free telephone service to provide medical and administrative health care services at any time for the population) before and during the COVID-19 outbreak in the KSA. Using a convenience sampling technique, a validated web-based questionnaire was distributed on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp) at 2 timepoints: before (February 2019) and during (May 2020) the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: The study sample comprised a total of 1961 participants who completed the questionnaire before (n=1303, 66%) and during (n=658, 33%) the COVID-19 pandemic. Both awareness (before=46% vs during=78%) and utilization (before=42% vs during=48%) of the 937-telephone health services increased significantly during the pandemic (P<.001). No significant association of the awareness or utilization of 937-telephone health services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic was found with respect to the participants’ age, education level, having children, or having any chronic disease. Conclusions: Our findings indicate significant increases in the awareness and utilization of 937-telephone health services during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting an increase in public acceptance of the service and providing evidence of an equitable telemedicine service for the population. Further studies are needed to provide a deeper understanding of the barriers and facilitators to the use of 937-telephone health services for different groups of the population.

Background: This study aims to assess and compare patient trust in public vs private physicians and to determine the factors that can affect the level of trust in the context of the KSA. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in the KSA to assess patient trust in physicians. A questionnaire was administered in both Arabic and English to patients above 18 years of age via online channels. Results: A statistically significant difference was found between the level of trust in public vs private physicians, where the public physicians showed higher patients’ trust scores compared to private physicians, where the mean was 2.51 (SD=0.60) and 2.29 (SD=0.56), respectively, P-value< 0.001. A statistically significant difference was also found between self-assessment health status (SAHS) groups (F(3)=11.429, P=0.010). Other factors were not significantly associated. Conclusion: This study found that public physicians engender a higher level of patient trust than private physicians. A further qualitative study should be conducted in the future to investigate the reasons behind the high trust in public physicians in the KSA. Practice Implications: The results of this study open doors for new investigations that might result in the implementation of new interventions to promote patient trust in the healthcare journey in KSA.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore health-care workers’ perceptions of patient safety culture (PSC) at primary health-care centers (PHCs) in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and the factors that influence them. An additional aim was to identify the challenges of adopting PSCs in the PHCs of this region. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that adopted a PSC questionnaire from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The questionnaire was administered online and onsite targeted health-care workers at private, governmental, and quasi-governmental PHCs in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, with 310 participants completing the survey. Results: The overall positive response rate of participants to the survey areas was 43.5% which is lower than the average for the AHRQ data in general. Teamwork scored the highest positive response (68.8%) while Number of Events and non-punitive Response to Error scored the lowest at 10.6% and 30.7%, respectively. In addition, ANOVA and t-tests were used to determine the bivariate associations for the parametric variables. The study reveals statistically significant differences between all demographic variables and overall PSC score, except by age. Conclusion: The findings highlight a number of areas for improvement, particularly in relation to event reporting, non-punitive responses, and openness in communication. Consequently, establishing a safety culture in health-care organizations necessitates the elimination of three crucial elements regarding errors: blame, fear, and silence. Error reporting should not just be considered a means of learning from mistakes; it should also be considered the first step towards preventing injury and improving patient safety.

Background: WhatsApp was the most popular messenger app used in Saudi Arabia with 71% of the total population using it in 2020. WhatsApp is increasingly being used as a tool for mobile health (m-health) interventions; however, concerning blood donation, there is a lack of research studies on the topic. Objective: This study aims to measure the general awareness levels of the blood donation process and assess blood donation history, the motivators and inhibitors to donating blood, and to assess the impact of WhatsApp on the blood donation process in Saudi Arabia. Methods: In this research study, a descriptive quantitative cross-sectional analysis was adopted. A questionnaire survey was designed using Google Forms and distributed online through social media applications to collect data. All citizens aged above 18 years of age were eligible to participate in the survey. There were a total of 150 participants in the study. Results: More than 90% of participants were aware of their blood group, blood donation requirements, and causes to be deferred from the donation. Furthermore, 27% of participants donated blood because their relatives or friends needed blood, 26% donated due to human solidarity, 18% did not donate blood because of their health condition and 14% did not because of the fear of needles. About 33% of participants relied on WhatsApp to search for blood donors, and all the requests were fulfilled with blood donors. In addition, 94% of participants strongly believed that the WhatsApp application had a significant role in bridging the gap for blood banks’ need for blood donors. Conclusion: Social media applications such as WhatsApp can bridge the gap between blood banks, blood donors and the patients in need of blood in Saudi Arabia, where there is a shortage of blood donors.