Measuring Performance of Rural Mental Healthcare Services in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Introduction Recently, the Saudi government has proposed several initiatives to promote mental health, including the national program named Wazen . The objective of this study was to observe the performance of mental hospitals using a balanced scorecard through this federal program. Methods Secondary quantitative analysis was implemented utilizing the Wazen report program data in 2022. The report adopted a balanced scorecard (BSC) concept. The study focused on 19 mental health facilities ( Eraddah Hospitals) in the Ministry of Health (MOH) regions. The MOH’s annual statistical report for 2018 and 2022 was reviewed to explore more about beds, staff, and the number of new mental disorder cases. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 365 and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 25) software. Mental health hospitals were classified into three categories. Results Most rural hospitals had lower performance in the yellow threshold value that might need improvement. The data shows that the mean of all hospital performance in some domains ranged, yielding 70% staff engagement and 77% continued educational activity, indicating unsatisfactory performance across public mental health services. The means score of access to care was 97.0% and 94.7%, marking the better mental health services provided. Between 2018 and 2022, there was a significant rise in the prevalence of mental disorders, as evidenced by the number of new patients and outpatients indicated by specific mental diseases, including conditions of psychological development (F80-F98). Discussion The high quality of mental healthcare is manifested by therapeutic ethos with a high degree of interaction between professional careers and service users. The former is enhanced by highly educated, competent, compassionate, self-aware, and specialized healthcare professionals in mental health. When assessing mental healthcare services, we recommend considering providers’ and professionals’ conditions for successful implementation in alignment with patient experience.

Analysis of the impact of healthcare providers’ mental health on patient care

“…Further, it has been shown that occupational stress is often associated with emotional exhaustion, which can lead to the loss of enthusiasm for work, feeling helpless, trapped, and defeated. 2 Frequently reported occupational stressors among healthcare professionals, especially in nursing services are those intrinsic to the job, those related to patient demands, feeling overburdened, related to roles within the organization, and those related to relationships at work and career development. 3 Existing literature on the psychological problems faced by medical practitioners is limited to few nationwide surveys and some specific hospital surveys.…”