Exploration of Factors Influencing the Healthcare Experience of Saudi Arabian Female Patients: A Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

Background: Healthcare facilities are generally improving and turning into complex environments. These types of built environments have shown effects on their users and affect their care and services as well. The quality of care and services are influenced by several indicators, the two most common are patient satisfaction (PS) and patient experience (PX). However, the patient experience in recent studies has become a critical clinical aspect, the study of which can help in improving the quality of healthcare facilities. Thus, to understand the PX, the various factors that influence the patient experience were collected. The primary goal of the study is to identify and articulate influential dimensions of the healthcare experience. The research questions were posed in three sequential phases: investigating, exploring, and evaluating, and they endeavored to investigate influential factors in the experiences of Saudi female patients in the western world versus those in Saudi Arabia. Method: This exploratory qualitative study used a systematic search that was conducted in three phases 1) extensive scoping review to identify and understand essential components and the meaning of PX; 2) survey and interview of pre & post-discharged Saudi patients to discover their patient experience and the factors affecting it; 3) analysis and interpretations of the collected data to discover any new factors, and to interpret the findings of the study. Findings: The key findings under each phase of the study include 1) the categorized list of the influential factors; 2) the important, rated, evaluated and new factors from the Saudi patient’s perspective; 3) the main differences between 1 & 2 with physical design implications. Conclusion: Although the findings of the study are not generalizable and not significant, they are thorough, varied, and valuable, and provide helpful implications and recommendations to improve local future PX, and could also support future studies to create local scales to measure PX.