Does Digital Health Improve Healthcare and Medicine Accessibility in Saudi Arabia?

OBJECTIVES: Saudi Arabia has been investing in digital health services such as online appointment booking to make it easier and faster for patients to receive health support. This study examines whether digital health services increase healthcare and medicine accessibility for patients in Saudi Arabia.

METHODS: Based on data from the Patient Experience Measurement Program 2020 and 2021, 13681 patients are pooled into a cross-section. Ordinary Least Squares regressions are run to estimate whether using digital health services reduces waiting time for clinic services, laboratory services and medicines. This research also conducts subgroup analyses on genders and age groups (children: age<13, young people and adults: 13<=age<65, and older adults: age>=65).

RESULTS: The use of digital health services reduces waiting time for clinic services by 1.81% and for laboratory tests by 3.38%. However, using digital health services is insignificant with waiting time for medicines. As for gender subgroups, the effect of digital healthcare usage on the waiting time reduction for clinic services is stronger for females (2.09%) than males (1.53%). Similarly, the effect of digital healthcare usage on the waiting time decline for laboratory services is larger for females (3.54%) than males (3.17%). In terms of age groups, the reduction of clinic waiting time with digital healthcare usage is the largest for older adults (4.14%) and similar for young people and adults (1.91%) and children (1.78%). The reduction of laboratory waiting time with digital healthcare usage is the largest for children (5.44%), the second for older adults (3.87%) and the least for young people and adults (3.06%).

CONCLUSIONS: This study finds that digital health services in Saudi Arabia save the waiting time of patients for clinic and laboratory services. The findings support the effectiveness of digital health services in boosting healthcare accessibility, especially for vulnerable populations, in Saudi Arabia.