Diabetic patient satisfaction and experience is a topic that can be covered within several spheres of interest. First, it is important to discuss challenges within data collection for patient experience. As patient satisfaction is issued to assess the quality of the healthcare system, it stands as an essential index for any healthcare unit. However, there are still trust issues within primary healthcare centers in Saudi Arabia, as Senitan et al. (2018) noted. Another barrier can be the cultural and language differences in the Arab community. Senitan et al. also pointed out that results from the survey were contradictory, as the patient satisfaction rates were not as high as noted previously.
It is also necessary to study the background of diabetic patients to assess their expectations and experiences. The study by Alsuwayt et al. (2021) found that most patients with type 2 diabetes had a lower quality of life than the general population. It stressed the importance of the development in the field of health-related quality of life to address the socioeconomic issues around patients with diabetes.
Another issue is the lack of research made in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia among diabetic patients. Presumably, Boubshait et al. (2022) review trust issues in primary care centers in Eastern Province. The study noted that the trust of patients with diabetes in physicians was higher in Saudi Arabia than in other observable countries, such as USA and China. The assessment of trust included the personal traits of physicians, their interaction with patients, and their attitude to the work.
Other parameters like gender and religious affiliation also greatly affected the perception and trust level of the physician. However, the given survey based on Eastern Province contradicts the study mentioned previously, pointing to the ambiguity of trust level scores among researchers. It provides a research gap represented in the lack of standard measurement for trust level satisfaction and proper assessment of the studies that show significantly different results.
The importance of a high level of trust stands from the perspective of diabetes management, in which physicians have an important role. Qasim et al. (2018) provide an issue of implementing insulin for type 2 diabetic patients, which stands from several challenges posed to a physician. One of the challenges is the lack of explanation to patients about the importance of insulin. This can also be clear from the patient satisfaction and experience in the primary care unit. Anazi et al. (2019) assessed diabetes type 2 patients’ satisfaction level with the experience of the medical care unit in Arar city.
Overall, it showed 65% of satisfaction among patients with diabetes (186). Still, different factors formed this data, such as service and provider factors or the patient’s expectations. Another study focused on the Hail Healthcare unit to assess diabetes quality improvement. Itumalla et al. (2021) evaluated healthcare quality using satisfaction scores. The study found a strong association between the distance from the clinic and patient satisfaction and a similarity between diabetes patients and general patient satisfaction over the experience.
As noted previously, there are several challenges in studying and reviewing patient satisfaction levels. Firstly, studies occupy mainly the national level, focusing on results for Saudi Arabia. A lack of regional studies for Eastern Province should be changed. The second challenge was the absence of standard parameters and scores for the satisfaction and experience level for the studies to be more precise and comparable.
References
Alsuwayt S., Almesned M., Alharj S., Alomari N., Alhadlaq R.,& Alotaibi A. (2021). Quality of life among type II diabetic patients attending the primary health centers of King Saud Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 10(8), 3040-3046.
Anazi K. S., Mohamed A. E., & Hammad S. M. (2019). Services satisfaction of type 2 diabetic patients attending Arar’s diabetic center, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Medical Journal, 40(2), 183-188.
Boubshait L. A., AlShamlan N. A., AlShammari R. Z., & Alamrah S. A. (2022). Patient trust in primary care physicians: A mixed methods study of persons with diabetes at university-based clinics in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Patient Preference and Adherence, 16, 3241-3255.
Itumalla R., Kumar R., Elabbasy M. T., Perera B., & Torabi M. R. (2021). Structural factors and quality of diabetes health services in Hail, Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study. Healthcare, 9(12), 1691.
Qasim M. A., Nada A. A., Mukesh K. K., & Amar H. K. (2018). Primary care physicians’ barriers to initiating insulin in Type 2 diabetes mellitus. A survey from the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. World Family Medicine, 16(7), 4-13.
Senitan M., Alhaiti A. H., & Gillespie J. (2018). Patient satisfaction and experience of primary care in Saudi Arabia: A systematic review. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 30(10), 751-759.