Background Saudi Arabia's health care system has undergone major changes in recent years to enhance the quality of the services it renders to the community. This study is designed to measure the quality of health care services from the patients' perspective and to compare the service quality of public and private hospitals in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. Methods The study has a quantitative cross-sectional design, with a questionnaire based on the SERVQUAL dimensional model. It was a random sample of 258 inpatients at private and public hospitals in Eastern Saudi Arabia. Results Patients at private hospitals perceived a higher level of quality of the health care services (t = 3.390, p < 0.01). Conclusions Further research on the financial and leadership dimensions of health care quality will contribute to improved planning for health care services.
Background: Good Catch programs are being increasingly embraced by the Saudi healthcare system to improve incidence reporting rates and patient safety. However, dental health care is at a critical stage of promoting a safety culture; there is insufficient use of incident reporting systems (IRS) in several dental schools. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the level of awareness, attitudes, practices, and perceived barriers to incident reporting among faculty and health care practitioners (HCPs) working in a university dental clinic. Methods: It is a cross-sectional study design where participants have been recruited from faculty working in a dental clinic at Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University during the year 2019. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed including domains of awareness, attitude, practice, and barriers to use. Results: A total of 199 completed questionnaires were received. HCPs differed with respect to their levels of awareness, attitudes, and practices of incident reporting when compared with non-Saudi HCPs. Nurses showed high awareness scores (X= 4.4, p <0.001), practice scores (X= 3.61, p <0.001), and attitudes (X= 3.9, p <0.001) in comparison with dentists and interns. The respondents agreed that the most common factor that influenced the rate of their incident reporting was "possible negative effect on the relationship with employees.". Conclusion: Nurses showed higher levels of awareness, attitude, and practice regarding IRS than did dentists and interns. We uncovered key factors influencing incident reporting among the faculty and HCPs in a university dental clinic. These findings could aid policymakers to focus on these factors so as to frame appropriate strategies to encourage incident reporting and to improve the effective use of the IRS.
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