Do Health Care Providers Pay Attention to Sharing Hospital Patient Safety Incidents Through Social Media in Saudi Arabia?

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to find out if health care providers in Saudi Arabia used social media to share the safety incidents that occurred in hospitals. Participants and Methods: To carry out this study, we conducted a survey using a valid and reliable questionnaire that was distributed through WhatsApp groups by means of a link to a sample of 450 health care providers in Saudi Arabia. The response rate was 33.55%, and 151 respondents answered the questionnaire. The survey was carried out in January 2019. The data were analyzed using basic descriptive statistics. Results: More than half of the respondents (54%) were female, and 68% of them were younger than 40 years. Also, 42% of the participants had a bachelor's degree, and 57% were working in the health care quality field. The participants used the following social media: WhatsApp (21%), Twitter (17%), YouTube (15%), Snapchat (13%), LinkedIn (12%), and Instagram (12%). They used these networks for education and professional development (24%), networking (23%), self-promotion (16%), employment (15%), sharing incidents that affect patient safety (11%), and health promotion (11%). Besides, 60% of the participants reported safety incidents that occurred in hospitals, and 72% of them did not agree to share these incidences through social media. In addition, 82% of participants thought that social networks were beneficial to obtain knowledge about quality of patient care. Conclusions: The findings of this research showed that most health care providers in Saudi Arabia considered that safety incidents that occur in hospitals should not be shared through social media because they affect the policies and privacy of hospitals, patients, and personnel. However, most of the respondents believed that social media could contribute to improving the quality of patient attention and thought that WhatsApp and Twitter could be the most useful social media for these purposes.