THE EFFECT OF VIRTUAL CLINIC SERVICES ON THE ATTITUDES OF HEALTHCARE PRACTITIONERS AT MATERNITY AND CHILDREN HOSPITAL (MCH), SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

Aim: This study investigates healthcare practitioners' attitudes towards virtual clinic services at the Maternity and Children Hospital (MCH), in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Background: The research explores how virtual clinic services have affected the attitudes and perspectives of medical staff at Makkah's Maternity and Children's Hospital (MCH). Utilising a questionnaire, the quantitative study assesses nine subscales of Performance expectancy, effort expectancy, perceived value, social influence and facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, perceived value, Habit and intention to use which are impeded in Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) 2 model. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire has been established by prior research and ethics committee evaluations. Method: Primary quantitative data was collected from 212 healthcare practitioners in this hospital. Then descriptive analysis, regression analysis and graphical analyses was carried out using R software. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Findings: Performance expectancy, perceived value, social influence and facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, perceived value and Habit influence the attitudes of healthcare practitioners in Saudi Arabia toward using these virtual clinics services. Nevertheless, effort expectancy has no effect over the attitude of participants to use virtual clinics services. Conclusions: The study reveals that healthcare practitioners at MCH in Makkah positively perceive virtual clinic services and their perception is influenced by performance expectancy, perceived value, facilitating conditions, and habit. This implies that UTAUT2 model is valid on the studied context.