HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

Healthcare System in Saudi Arabia

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Situations of Hospitals in Saudi Arabia1

Policies Used To Cater the Needs of Patients2

How Patients Are Served In Hospitals, in the Country3

Discussion3

SWOT Analysis3

Weaknesses5

Opportunities5

Threats5

Patch 1-Drivers for Service and Quality Improvement within an Organization6

Factors for Improving Service and Quality6

Improvement of Services by Government Hospitals7

Factors Contributed To the Success of Hospitals9

Patch 2-Implementation of Change for Patient and/or Service Improvement9

Patch 3- Analysis of Resistance While Unfreezing the Existing Situation12

McKinsey 7S18

Strategy18

Skills18

Structure19

Systems19

Staff19

Style19

Shared Values19

Conclusion20

References22

Healthcare System in Saudi Arabia

Introduction

Situations of Hospitals in Saudi Arabia

The healthcare system in Saudi Arabia has ensured the right of the citizens and their families in case of emergency, sickness, disability and old age as stated in the Law of the country. It also takes care of the public health and provides health care for every citizen. Further, it contributes to the health sector by a good health service up to 20.1%. Hospitals in main cities (Riyadh, and Jeddah) are better compared to small cities in terms of technology that provides high quality care, the availability of drugs, and access to care for everyone (Naiaz 2006: 11).

The hospitals in the country are operated in two ways either by the ministry directly, where powers are limited to the director of the hospital or by self-running that is handled by the ministry, such as the royal (King Fahd Medical City Hospital, Riyadh Armed Forces) and for the Director has more financing facilities that help them to provide the best services. Further, racism in Saudi hospitals are almost non-existent due to free treatment there is less racism against the elderly, for example, or the chronically ill as in some hospitals, in America. However, there is a racism against the employees or foreigners in general because they are not provided with free health care except in emergencies. Therefore, in order to avoid such discrimination, concerned authorities have provided medical insurance for foreigners or employees to fill this gap. In addition to that, hospitals in the western region (Makkah, Jeddah, and Madina) that have large numbers of patients at the time of Hajj and Umrah have hospitals to provide care to people in this region. Hospitals follow the same regulations and regulatory decisions in all parts of the country (Skillicorn 1987: 91).

Policies Used To Cater the Needs of Patients

The Ministry of Health is the main provider of health service and health strategy consists of the following most fundamental policies (Sebai 2001: 95):

1.To provide primary health care through a network of primary health centers.

2.To deliver preventive the health of population of the kingdom.

3.To plan, finance and regulate of hospitals.

4.To supervise and follow-up of non-affiliated hospitals.

5.To develop, train and prepare strategies for the health sector.

The healthcare sector of Saudi Arabia is typically funded by public. The GDP percentage that is spent on the healthcare sector was 3.5% in 2007. In the same year, the percentage of private GDP spent on health was 0.9% (Jannadi et al. 2008: 47). It has been noted that the healthcare in the country is improving over the years, and it ...