Assessing Healthcare Data Quality in Saudi Arabia: A Step Towards Improvement

Assessing Healthcare Data Quality in Saudi Arabia: A Step Towards Improvement

Assessing healthcare data quality is crucial for informed decision-making and effective patient care delivery. In Saudi Arabia, this aligns with Vision 2030's healthcare transformation goals. We developed the first engine in Saudi Arabia to assess healthcare data quality regularly.

What did we do?

We conducted the first nationwide assessment of healthcare data quality in Saudi Arabia, aiming to understand how reliable and accurate the data collected by the Ministry of Health facilities are. To achieve this, we built and validated a data quality engine and established a set of rules to measure data quality.

What did we find?

Our analysis covered an extensive dataset of millions of patient encounters from March 2022 to April 2023. We found that while many data elements were of high quality, there were areas for improvement. Specifically, measures of completeness, consistency, validity, timeliness, and uniqueness showed varying levels of performance, indicating areas that need attention.

What does this mean?

Our findings suggest that healthcare data in Saudi Arabia can be enhanced to ensure reliability. By identifying areas of weakness and implementing improvements, we can promote trust in healthcare data, leading to better decision-making and ultimately improving patient care. Additionally, our automated approach can serve as a model for assessing data quality in other healthcare systems worldwide, potentially leading to global improvements in healthcare data management.