The Role of Telemedicine Services in Reducing Emergency Department Overload in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: ED overcrowding is described as one of the main issues in emergency departments (EDs) of any hospital. In Saudi Arabia, the ministry of health applied new telemedicine technology to serve patients by using the mobile application which include Sehha application and 937 medical call center. The main aim of this study is to determine the role of different telemedicine services in reducing non-urgent visits to EDs in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-section study was conducted during August 2020 - May 2021 among 319 patients were using two telemedicine services in Saudi Arabia, including medical call center, and Sehha smart phone application. The primary endpoint of this study aims to determine the role of different telemedicine services in reducing non-urgent visits to EDs in Saudi Arabia. Results: This study analyzed the data from 319 patients who completed the survey provided by the Saudi Ministry of Health that concerning on information related to their health status, and ED visits. Among patients that had the intention to visit the ED (N=159), 53 of them did not go to EDs after using telemedicine services (p-value < 0.01). Regarding medical call center and Sehha application, 9.6% and 24.4%, respectively of the patients used these telemedicine services had changed their mind concerning visiting ED after taking the medical advice (p-values < 0.01).Conclusion: The implemented telemedicine services in Saudi Arabia, namely Sehha application and medical call center showed to be effective in reducing ED overload by providing medical advices to less- and non-urgent patients and deal with their minor medical issues.

Telehealth and Transformation of Nursing Care in Saudi Arabia: A Systematic Review

“…The criterion was provided for the inclusion of studies that were most relevant to the research question. The articles included met the following criteria: [ 19 ] primary research papers, [ 20 ] studies written in English, [ 1 ] published between 2016 and date, [ 21 ] peer-reviewed, and [ 22 ] articles that discussed telehealth with a focus on nursing in Saudi Arabia. Articles that were excluded failed to meet this criterion and included papers older than five years, systematic reviews/meta-analyses, reports/manuals/editorials, and those using a different language.…”

“…Similar aspects led Abolfotouh et al, [ 19 ] to study the use of smartphones to facilitate remote healthcare among healthcare workers IN KSA. Alfaleh et al, [ 21 ] noted the government efforts toward medical technology such as mobile application SEHA in over 900 medical centers. The researcher conducted a survey to examine the impact of the technology, especially given the high satisfaction rate among service users.…”

“…The qualitative research is crucial in healthcare given its ability to answer the question “WHY” a given phenomenon exists and “HOW” it impacts healthcare systems or service users. On the other hand, Thapa et al, [ 24 ] and Alfaleh et al, [ 21 ] adopted a quantitative methodology, which helps collect and integrate data collected through scientific inquiry into nursing science. Solvik and Struksnes [ 27 ] argue that quantitative analysis helps measure specific variables in healthcare and provides precise data.…”

“…Large sample sizes offer proximate mean appropriations with relatively small margin errors in addition to the ease of generalizing the research results. The research by Alshammari [ 2 ] included 781 participants representing the general population in KSA; Ahmed et al, [ 20 ] relied on 335 HCWs; Alfaleh et al, [ 21 ] included 319 participants; Abolfotouh et al, [ 19 ] relied on a sample of 351, and Al-Marashi and Al-Zghool [ 25 ] included 344 nurses. These studies are considered strong and reliable.…”

“…As a result, the present study relies on a framework developed by Cardwell, Henshaw, and Taylor in 2005 and updated in 2011. The framework provides a judicious approach to crucially analyzing The selected eight studies [2,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] used the single sentence, explicit, and informative titles that provided information about the purpose of study, location, and target population. Titles ought to comprehensively reflect the content of the study in a precise yet explicit manner.…”