Opinions of healthcare leaders on the barriers and challenges of using social media in Saudi Arabian healthcare settings

Abstract

Background: Several authors have studied the benefits and risks of using social media in healthcare settings. However, there are few studies on the opinion of healthcare leaders to face the challenges of using social media networks. Purpose: The objective of this study was to investigate the opinions of healthcare leaders on the barriers and challenges of using social media in Saudi Arabian healthcare settings. Method: ology: A cross-sectional study was conducted to collect information related to the research objective. A questionnaire distributed through Telegram, Twitter, and WhatsApp was used for this purpose. Initially, the questionnaire was sent to 226 healthcare leaders and 70 participants completed and returned the questionnaire. The data were analyzed using basic statistics. Results: More than half of the respondents (84.3%) used social media and WhatsApp was the most used platform (78.6%). Most of the participants (90%) believed that social media must be used in healthcare settings and 78.6% of them thought that there were barriers to use social media in healthcare scenery. Some of the detected barriers were the absence of clear policies, ethical reasons, security issues, dissemination of inaccurate information, and so forth. The main suggestions to face the challenges generated by these barriers were to implement security mechanisms to guarantee the privacy and confidentiality of patient data, establish websites and social networks managed by certified specialists, and monitor the information posted on social media to ensure that it is reliable. Also, the participants considered that it was necessary to implement clear guidelines and policies on how to use social media adequately. They also thought that the Ministry of Health Education should observe the information published on social networks. Conclusion: The majority of respondents agreed on the importance of using social media in healthcare settings in Saudi Arabia. However, the participating healthcare leaders considered that there were barriers and challenges related to the use of these platforms. In this sense, they suggested a set of solutions to use social networks efficiently and safely to improve the healthcare system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Keywords

• Healthcare managers
• Healthcare leaders
• Networks
• Barriers
• Challenges
• Social media policies