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Article Detail
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Staffing Plan for Respiratory Therapists in Saudi Arabia
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| Author:
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AHMAD ALESSA,
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| Abstract:
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BACKGROUND: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia experiences a shortage of respiratory therapists in its health care sectors, which affects the quality of respiratory care provided in the hospitals. The hospitals in KSA are owned and managed by the Ministry of Health, other government agencies (hospitals operated by the military, Saudi Arabian National Guard, Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense and Aviation, Ministry of Interior, and Referral Hospitals) and privately-owned for-profit hospitals. A study conducted by Alotaibi in 2015 indicates the respiratory therapist to patient ratio overall in KSA is 1:11, with the ratio spread between MOH hospitals (1:20) and non-MOH hospitals (1:9). In the estimation of RTs needed in KSA, this study proposes to apply a ratio of 1:20 for the general floor, which was applied in the staffing of RTs in the study of RTs staffing in KSA by Alotaibi in 2015. For all the ICU beds in MOH, non-MOH, and private facilities, the RTs to bed ratio will be applied according to the international recommendation of 1:5. In the model that estimates the number of RTs needed in KSA, the study applies 1:5 in all the ICUs (MOH, non-MOH, and private hospitals) and 1:20 used on the general floor.
OBJECTIVE: The study aims to estimate the number of respiratory therapists that should be hired in KSA to meet the international optimum ratio of 1:5 RTs-to-patients in ICU and 1:20 in general floor. In addition to having more than half of the RTs from foreign countries, which contributes to workforce instability in Saudi Arabia, there is a need to train RTs and hire them in the nation's health care system to meet the internationally desired ratio of 1:5.
METHODS: The Telford staffing model has been used in determining the total number of RTs needed to satisfy the national demand in all hospitals across the country. Additionally, the regional population factor has been included in the model to facilitate equity in the distribution of RTs across the country and solve RTs concentration in the central region of KSA. The Telford model calculates the number of beds in the facilities by the different ratios, multiplies the number of days and hours of work (12 x 2 “24-hour shifts”), divided by 48 hours of work per week and added 23 percent of the obtained number to factor for the durations that some of the RTs might not be at the hospitals due to various reasons.
RESULTS: The developed Telford calculated the number of RTs needed in the general floor and ICU beds for the MOH, non-MOH, and private facilities determined the number of RTs, in total, required for all the 20 medical administrative regions provided in the MOH statistical yearbook. The findings show that Saudi Arabia needs a total of 21,666 that will work in the total of 75,225 beds (general floor and ICU) in the 494 hospitals (MOH, non-MOH, and private) in KSA.
CONCLUSIONS: The number of RTs in Saudi Arabia depends on the ratios determined in the various hospitals, including the ICU and general floor beds. The findings show that there is need for more training of Saudi RTs because of the country’s reliance on expatriate RT workforce that contributes to the high RT to patient/bed ratios in the country. In the future, medical training schools should consider increasing the training RTs in different regions. The RTs numbers calculated in the Telford model does not cover all the RT needs, it focuses only on hospitals in KSA.
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| Keyword:
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Saudi,Therapists
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| EOI:
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-
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| DOI:
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https://doi.org/10.31838/ijpr/2020.12.04.584
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| Download:
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