Abstract：
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic crisis brought great challenges on health care systems around the world, forcing many services to slow or temporarily shut down, including medical services in Saudi Arabia (SA). Health care institutions had to adapt new strategies such as virtual clinics to continue delivering care in light of the situation. Virtual clinics and telemedicine are relatively new and limited literature is available regarding patient\'s experience in SA. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess and evaluate the levels of patients\' satisfaction with the experience of services provided by virtual clinics at the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs. Method: A retrospective cross-sectional study based on secondary data collected by the corporate patient experience department at MNGHA. The analysis included all virtual clinics\' visits from four MNGHA regions (Central, Eastern, Western, and AlMadinah) between April 19 and May 15, 2020. Findings: The results showed that more than half of our study participants were females (57%) (N = 7,803) and (64%) (N = 8,696) were between the age of 21-64 years. Most of the participants were from the Central region (73%) (N = 10,026). More than half of virtual visits were to hospitals (66%) (N = 9,098). Results from the ordinal regression showed that age, gender, region and, survey method were significantly associated with extreme satisfaction score (4.21-5.0). Males were more likely to be extremely satisfied than females (OR = 1.088), and patients between the ages of 6-20 were extremely satisfied compared with the age group 41-64 (OR = 1.309). Eastern region was more likely to be extremely satisfied than central region (OR = 1.121). Patients surveyed by calls were more likely to be extremely satisfied compared with SMS surveys (OR = 1.808), whereas facility type showed no significance. The overall satisfaction score was 4.1 out of 5. Interpretation: According to our findings, the majority of patients were satisfied with the experiences of virtual clinics at MNGHA. Therefore, we recommend exploring more frequent use of virtual clinics when appropriate beyond the pandemic. Virtual clinics can minimize the risk of disease transmission, save travel time, and is considered a cost-effective alternative to traditional clinics.
摘要：
简介：COVID-19大流行危机给世界各地的医疗保健系统带来了巨大挑战，迫使许多服务放慢速度或暂时关闭，包括沙特阿拉伯（SA）的医疗服务。医疗保健机构必须适应新的战略，例如虚拟诊所，以根据情况继续提供护理。虚拟诊所和远程医疗相对较新，关于患者在SA中的经验的文献有限。因此,本研究的目的是评估和评估患者对国民警卫队卫生事务部虚拟诊所提供的服务体验的满意度。方法：根据MNGHA公司患者体验科收集的次要数据进行回顾性横断面研究。分析包括来自四个MNGHA地区的所有虚拟诊所(中部，东方,西方,和AlMadinah)在2020年4月19日至5月15日之间。研究结果表明，我们的研究参与者中有一半以上是女性（57％）（N=7,803）和（64％）（N=8,696），年龄在21-64岁之间。大多数参与者来自中部地区（73％）（N=10,026）。超过一半的虚拟访问是到医院（66％）（N=9,098）。序数回归的结果表明，年龄，性别,区域和,调查方法与极端满意度评分（4.21-5.0）显著相关。男性比女性更容易极度满足（OR=1.088），6-20岁的患者与41-64岁的患者相比非常满意（OR=1.309）。东部地区比中部地区更可能非常满意（OR=1.121）。与SMS调查相比，电话调查的患者更可能非常满意（OR=1.808），而设施类型无显著性。5分的总满意度为4.1分。解读：根据我们的发现，大多数患者对MNGHA虚拟诊所的体验感到满意.因此,我们建议在大流行后酌情探索更频繁地使用虚拟诊所.虚拟诊所可以将疾病传播的风险降到最低,节省旅行时间,被认为是传统诊所的一种具有成本效益的替代方案。
