A comparative analysis of the health services indicators distribution in public hospitals:guide for nursing transformation plan in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Healthcare in Saudi Arabia (SA) is a national system in which the government provides free universal coverage through public health services to meet the increasing demand for healthcare due to population growth. Saudi Vision 2030 is a national transformation program that translates into a system-wide transformation involving expanding healthcare services focusing on value-based healthcare. This translates into a system-wide transformation involving expanding healthcare services focusing on value-based healthcare. This contributes to a series of developments in the health delivery systems fields and nursing services. This study aims to explore the four selected indicators of health services and to provide a plan for nursing transformation in SA. The study employs the data of 4 selected indicators and data of the total population extracted from the statistical yearbooks of the last five years (2017- 2021). Descriptive statistics, normality distribution using the Shapiro-Wilk test, and Homogeneity of variance applying Levene’s test were employed. In the analysis of health distribution, the proportion between the total population as the independent factor and the total of health services as the dependent factor was conducted. The major total of the population was located in three main regions, with 66.3%. The spatial distribution of the selected health indicators was related to the population distribution in three main regions, with 43.7% of the hospitals, 51.6% of the hospital beds, 57.3% of the physicians, and 55.4% of the nurses. The abnormality of total population distribution with a p-value of 0.001 at the freedom degree of 13 was noticed. In addition, the analysis shows an abnormally distributed total of the selected health indicators with a p-value of 0.001-0.026 at a freedom degree of 13.