Angela Wilkins-Bassett
Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Saudi Arabia
Title: Improving Access to Care through the Integration of the Nurse Practitioner Role in a Saudi Arabian Primary Care Department: A Comparative Study
Biography
Biography: Angela Wilkins-Bassett
Abstract
Primary care is essential for any effective healthcare system. Poor patient health outcomes, low patient satisfaction, and increased healthcare expenditures result without access to primary care. Globally primary care departments struggle to meet the needs of growing patient populations coupled with physician shortages, increasing disease complexity, and aging populations. Although research demonstrates that Nurse Practitioners (NPs) provide safe and high-quality healthcare, the best utilization of their skills to improve access was explored through an integrative review in an international setting. Evidence from the integrative review supported the introduction of the NP role into the walk-in setting to improve access to care.
This quality improvement (QI) project was implemented in an outpatient primary care setting in Saudi Arabia. A 12-week comparison study measuring the outcomes of the NP role into the walk-in clinic was performed from April 1 to July 31, 2017. Outcomes measured included patient satisfaction, productivity, healthcare utilization, and quality of care. The introduction of the new role resulted in positive patient satisfaction, comparable productivity and healthcare utilization rates, and high quality of care measures. The introduction of the new role in a busy Saudi Arabian primary care clinic demonstrated that NPs can improve access to care through the provision of safe and high quality care without increasing healthcare utilization. Future implications of these findings include the development and expansion of the nurse practitioner role within the Kingdom to improve access to care.