Gemeinschaftsmedizin und Gesundheitserziehung

Abstrakt

Utilization Patterns of Primary Healthcare Services at the Tertiary Care Hospital

Sajjan Iqbal Memon, Bandar Al Jasser, Muteb Al-Enezi, Mutaz Masoud

Objectives: This study aims to identify patterns of Health utilization, such as overutilization, underutilization and inefficient scheduling of resources and to measure the effectiveness and efficiency related to health utilization of facilities and services through an ongoing monitoring and educational program. Studying the health resources utilization in primary care setting is highly important especially in the healthcare system with diverse specialties and backgrounds. Therefore, eliminating waste and efficiently manage resources will improve the management control, staff involvement and patient experience.

Research Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study design with self-administrative questionnaires was used to collect information from 161 respondents over the period of 6 months (January to June2019). The target sample size was 400 patients based on Outpatient Department, at 300 bed Tertiary Care Hospital in Riyadh Saudi Arabia.

Results/Findings: Between March 2019 to April 2019, 400 patients were prospectively evaluated for their experience in attending in our outpatient clinic. 400 patients were with complete data and eligible for analysis. 242 (60.5%) of the sample were males. We categorized our sample in two groups. The first group includes the males (n=242), and the females (n=158). The response rate was 89% and the completion rate was 100%.

Conclusion: There was high utilization of lab and radiology services ranges between 60-70% of patients. High significant level shown for Lab and Radiology requests as well as the Health Education, with the Cause of visit, on other hand, Facility was convenient for patients in matter of Parking, waiting areas and accessibility to the hospital.