Parents satisfaction in primary health care centres in Jizan with a newly implemented SMS vaccination reminder system

Abstract

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) Ministry of Health (MoH) has implemented an SMS-reminder service for vaccination schedules in line with the increasing use of such services in healthcare systems around the globe in order to help parents adhere to their children’s vaccination schedules and ensure a healthier nation. As the main users of this service, the views of parents toward it are critical to its success. This study is the first to explore the views of parents in Saudi Arabia (Jizan region) about the perceived benefits and barriers to using the reminder service. The study employs a qualitative methodology and thematic analysis to draw themes from the data collected from fifteen participants in online interviews using Skype. The analysis encompasses three major categories: benefits, barriers, and overall satisfaction, and a number of themes that reveal the parents’ views. The benefits are the facilitation of adhering to a vaccination schedule, the convenience and ease of use of SMS services, and the guaranteed knowledge that the vaccination will be available when they attend the appointment. The barriers to use include lack of information about the vaccine, poor timing and frequency of reminders, complex registration process, and inadequate technical support. As the parents were generally satisfied with the service, the benefits currently outweigh the barriers identified, but this study recommends that the problems these barriers highlight be solved in future service improvements. Further, the feedback of parents should be collected on an ongoing basis as part of service maintenance in order to ensure high rates of on-time vaccinations.