The Perception of Health Care Practitioners Regarding Telemedicine During COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: Mixed Methods Study

Abstract

Background Telemedicine is a rapidly evolving field that uses information and communication technology to provide remote health care services, such as diagnosis, treatment, consultation, patient monitoring, and medication delivery. With advancements in technology, telemedicine has become increasingly popular during the COVID-19 lockdown and has expanded beyond remote consultations via telephone or video to include comprehensive and reliable services. The integration of telemedicine platforms can enable patients and health care providers to communicate more efficiently and effectively. Objective This study aims to investigate the awareness, knowledge, requirements, and perceptions of health care practitioners in Saudi Arabia during the pandemic health crisis from the end-user perspective. The findings of this study will inform policy makers regarding the sustainability of telemedicine and how it affects the process of provision of health care and improves the patients’ journey. Methods This study adopted a mixed methods design with a quantitative-based cross-sectional design and qualitative interviews to assess the perceptions of various health care professionals working in outpatient departments that have a telemedicine system that was used during the COVID-19 pandemic. For both approaches, ethics approval was obtained, and informed consent forms were signed. In total, 81 completed questionnaires were used in this study. In the second phase, general interviews were conducted with managerial staff and health care professionals to obtain their view of telemedicine services in their hospitals. Results The study revealed that most participants (67/81, 83%) were familiar with telemedicine technology, and the study proved to be statistically significant at P<.05 with a proportion of the participants (52/81, 64%) believing that continuous training was essential for its effective use. The study also found that consultations (55/153, 35.9%) and monitoring patients (35/153, 22.9%) were the major components of telemedicine used by health care professionals, with telephones being the most commonly used mode of interaction with patients (74/117, 63.2%). In addition, 54% (44/81) of the respondents expressed concerns about patient privacy and confidentiality, highlighting this as a major issue. Furthermore, the majority of participants (58/81, 72%) reported the necessity of implementing national standards essential for telemedicine technology in Saudi Arabia. The interviews conducted as part of the study revealed 5 major themes: culture, barriers and difficulties, communication, implementation, and evaluation. These themes highlighted the importance of a culture of acceptance and flexibility, effective communication, and ongoing evaluation of telemedicine technologies in health care systems. Conclusions This study provides a crucial message with insights into the perceptions and experiences of health care professionals with telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia.

Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, and Skills (AKAS) of Telemedicine and Its Use by Primary Healthcare Providers

“…Several national and international studies highlight the positive impact of increasing healthcare professionals’ awareness of the effective utilization and integration of TM in healthcare. 52 , 60–63 This was in agreement with the results of our study, where a significant difference was shown between the TM users group and the non-user group in the awareness parameter in favor of the TM user group. This increased healthcare providers’ awareness about the effective use of TM increases the acceptability of it among the patients and the healthcare providers, 36 , 63–65 facilitates and accelerates the integration of the TM within the PHCs.…”

Health Care Professionals’ Understanding and Perceptions of Telemedicine in Saudi Arabia: A Systematic Review

“…A total of twelve articles were included in the review for having met the inclusion considerations Albarrak et al, 2021;Alghamdi et al, 2022;Aloyuni et al, 2020;Alqurashi et al, 2023;Bashir & Bastola, 2018;Bashir et al, 2023;Moussa et al, 2023;Ullah et al, 2021;Idriss et al, 2022;. The articles conformed to two methodologies -one mixed research and the rest applied the quantitative design.…”

“…Other also expressed a feeling that technological limitations, willingness among staff, location of the systems and diagnostic reliability hinder the effective use of telemedicine (Aloyuni et al, 2020). Nevertheless, some studies also identified recommendations for better adoption and use among the healthcare staff, including continuous training the healthcare workers, continuous evaluation of the system, consideration of organizational culture and systems (Alqurashi et al, 2023).…”