Published 2025-05-15
Keywords
- Saudi Model of Care; Chronic Care; Workforce Readiness; Vision 2030; Digital Health
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Background: Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and Health Sector Transformation Program introduced the New Model of Care (MoC) to strengthen value based, integrated, and preventive healthcare delivery. The Chronic Care System is a core component of this transformation due to the rising burden of non-communicable diseases. Successful implementation of chronic care pathways depends on workforce readiness, yet evidence from health clusters remains limited.
Objective: To assess healthcare workers’ knowledge, attitudes, perceived challenges, and opportunities related to Saudi MoC chronic care pathway implementation in the Hafar Al-Batin Health Cluster (HBHC), In addition to identifying factors associated with workforce readiness.
Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted between June and July 2025 among healthcare workers in primary, secondary, and tertiary facilities within HBHC. A validated bilingual self-administered questionnaire assessed sociodemographic characteristics, MoC-related knowledge, attitudes, implementation challenges, and enabling opportunities. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, Spearman correlation, and stepwise linear regression in R software, with significance set at p < 0.05.
Results: A total of 400 healthcare workers participated (mean age 38.1 ± 7.7 years; 72% female). Regarding knowledge, higher scores were observed among primary healthcare staff (80%), consultants/specialists, and those directly involved in chronic care pathways (62.5%). For attitudes, perceptions that are more positive were associated with MoC training attendance (46%) and higher digital health experience (64%). Concerning challenges, the most frequently reported barriers were inadequate training or awareness (50%), low patient health literacy (51.5%), workforce shortages (36%), and digital system limitations. In terms of opportunities, participants prioritized enhanced staff training, continuous professional education, improved multidisciplinary collaboration, and strengthened digital infrastructure. Regression analysis showed that knowledge level and digital health experience were the strongest independent predictors of positive attitudes, explaining approximately 24% of variance.
Conclusion: Strengthening workforce training, digital competencies, and organizational support is essential to enhance readiness for effective MoC chronic care pathway implementation in rural health cluster settings.