SULAIMAN ALHABIB

PERFORMANCE ISSUES
AND SOLUTION.

DECEMBER 27, 2022

NAME
 SULAIMAN ALHABIB PERFORMANCE ISSUES AND SOLUTION

Contents

Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2

Project Aim............................................................................................................................................2

Project Rationale....................................................................................................................................2

Background:...........................................................................................................................................2

Dr.Suliman Alhabib..................................................................................................................................3

Operational Issues..................................................................................................................................4

Issues.......................................................................................................................................................4

Solutions..................................................................................................................................................6

Human Resource Issues..........................................................................................................................7

Issues.......................................................................................................................................................7

Solutions..................................................................................................................................................8

Conclusion..............................................................................................................................................9

Evaluation..............................................................................................................................................9

References:..........................................................................................................................................10

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 SULAIMAN ALHABIB PERFORMANCE ISSUES AND SOLUTION

Introduction
As population increases every day, the amount of health they will need increases also. As, nowadays,
the number of humans around the world has reached nearly 8 billion, healthcare industry in each
country should provide all healthcare products and services needed to meet the needs of these 8
billion. This is a hilarious number as not everybody will be able to gain these services and care which
results in spreading more diseases all around the world. Each country, nowadays, has put in
consideration the enhancement of its healthcare industry. Many researches have showed how the
performance of the hospitals has been impacted by challenges like staff shortages, medical errors,
financial and medical negligence, etc. This research demonstrates the operational and human
resource issues or challenges that impact the Saudi healthcare industry in general, Dr. Sulaiman
Alhabib in specific, and provide some possible solution to resolve these issues.
Project Aim
The aim of this research is to demonstrate the operational and human resource issues that can have
impact on the performance of the Saudi healthcare industry in general, Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib Hospital
in specific, and discuss reasonable solutions to overcome these issues and enhance the hospital’s
performance.
Project Rationale
As other industry in the world, hospital, clinics, and other healthcare industry may face issues in terms
of finance, regulations, staff shortages, etc. that can impact their performance and reputation. This
research is about discussing some of the operational and human resource issues that will have an
impact on, specifically Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib, performance and provide some possible solutions to
resolve these issues.
Background
Both the public and private healthcare systems in Saudi Arabia offer high-quality services.
Additionally, the government's Ministry of Health offers around 60% of the services, including primary
healthcare facilities, hospitals, and specialist services, on a public basis. Saudi nationals and
employees in the public sector are welcome to use the Saudi Arabian public healthcare system. Since
2005, foreign nationals have been required to have health insurance, which must be provided by their
employment.

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Dr.Suliman Alhabib
Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib Hospital, our research topic, is a well-known name in the healthcare market. It
began in 1995. The core of Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib's Medical Group was created in the Olaya district of
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in accordance with an advanced vision that uses the best worldwide healthcare
standards; in offering a fully integrated premium health service. Furthermore, the Olaya Medical
Complex is the largest integrated medical complex in the region. It offers American Board, Canadian,
and European Fellowship consultants, as well as integrated and specialised clinics that provide
healthcare services for all medical disciplines. As time passes, Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib started to expand
and build more branches which increased the issues that Dr.Sulaiman Alhabib challenges which will be
discussed in the following sections.

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Operational Issues
Issues
Lack of capital and human resource acquisition coordination
The motivation for the Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib healthcare system to acquire and use the newest capital
equipment has increased as competition for patients has started to rise. The purchase of pricey
equipment improves the repute of the specific facility. Individual institutions may improve their
reputation by acquiring modern equipment, but they have little incentive to use it effectively given
the immense and enormous resources they spend on operations and special equipment allocations. In
reality, the operating costs saved by using the service less frequently can be kept and applied to other
projects.
Increasing competition
For years, as public hospitals got global resources, they saw the expansion of private hospitals around
them as good. Because MOH hospitals were bound by an annual total amount of money in their
global budgets, any services that could be done outside of their premises directly improved their
allotted expenses. Increasing rivalry among government-supported hospitals may have an impact on
Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib's healthcare services, threatening their continuity and quality, and ultimately
reducing the number of people who use the hospital and its services. To entice paying patients, many
hospitals have established "business centers." These are clinics that provide primary to tertiary care
services to paying patients, both Saudis and non-Saudis. Some of the larger government hospitals are
already generating millions of dollars in monthly revenue from their business centers.

Composition of the health force

The educational infrastructure has not existed for the previous 40 years to generate a necessary
number of doctors, nurses, and healthcare technicians due to the nation's fast industrialization. Even
if the educational capacity has significantly increased, non-Saudis continue to make up the large bulk
of the medical staff at Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib Hospital. Nurses come from all over the world, including
the United States, Canada, Australia, and the Philippines. The picture of health workforce in Saudi
Arabia is often referred to as the "United Nations of Health Professionals," due to the huge number of
countries represented. Because foreign nationals typically stay in the country for a short period of
time, continuity is an issue. Figure 1 shows the difference between the Saudi and Non Saudi Workers
from 2017 to 2019 by showing the percent of the Saudi workers in Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib Hospital. In
2017, Non- Saudi workers were making nearly 70.3% of the health care workers while Saudi Workers

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were nearly 29.7% Saudi Workers in the hospital. However, In 2018, the number of Saudi workers
increased a little bit making 33.8% of the healthcare professionals meanwhile 66.2% were non-Saudi
healthcare professionals. In 2019, the number of Saudi healthcare workers reached 34.5% meanwhile
non-Saudi workers were 65.5% healthcare professionals as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1: Clustered Column Chart that shows the Figure 1: Percentage of Saudi and Non-Saudi
percentage of Saudi Workers increased from in Dr.Sulaiman Alhabib Hospital in 2019
2017 to 2019

Low IT Self-defense- Systems

Technology, nowadays, is being developed and improved every day. The concept of recording the
patient records and details written on a paper is being demolished. Every patient has his/her file
saved in a database that has a unique ID for each patient which make it easy for healthcare services
easier to know all information of the patient such as age, long-term diseases, allergies, etc. A single
vulnerability that can has an impact on the healthcare’s database is considered as a threat because it
will lead to many drawbacks such as information leaking, identity threat, overdoses, etc. This can lead
Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib in having a bad reputation, losing patients and sometimes can lead to legal
issues.

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Solutions
Many solutions can be applied to overcome these operational issues and enhance the performance in
Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib Hospital but some of them are going to be mentioned in this research.

The first issue which is “lack of capital and human resource acquisition coordination”. This issue can
be solved by planning. A short and long-term strategic plans must be implemented in terms of budget,
services, patients outcomes, etc. must be done that meets compliance with the hospital’s visions,
values and the regulations in Saudi Arabia to maintain and enhance the performance and quality of
service that is provided. Plans including budget plans that explains the annual budget spent on the
essential and latest versions of medical devices and its maintenance, effective medicines that will
benefit the patients without taking too many prescriptions (depending on the case of the patient), etc.
Also, collecting the patients’ data and analyzing it can help in knowing the outcome of the patient and
whether the patient had really received a good and effective service or not. This helps in enhancing
the quality of the services by knowing the feedback of the patients regarding the services and the
reputation the patient will leave to others regarding the hospital.

The second issue which is “Increasing Competition”. This issue can be solved by conducting market
research frequently. A scheduled market research will assist in knowing the latest technologies that
other competitors implemented and how patients respond to the efficiency of these technologies by
reading about the latest technologies, reading feedbacks on how patients have responded and
whether it really benefited them or was inefficient in order to make a decision to benefit Dr. Sulaiman
Alhabib by implementing it or not.

The third issue was “Composition of Healthforce”. This issue can be solved by offering training to new-
Saudi starters to guarantee continuity. Training Saudi citizens will increase their percentage in the
healthcare industry instead of non-Saudi citizen. Training can come into multiple shapes for example
graduation schemes for fresh graduates, internships and placements for university students, and
certificates awarded to Saudi citizens after completing a training period for people that did not study
medicine and want to work in the healthcare industry for example First Aid Trainee Certification.

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The last issue in this research is the “Low IT Self-defense- Systems”. This issue can be solved by hiring
a professional IT team in all aspects such as cyber-security, penetration testing teams, monitoring, and
networking, etc. The IT team is an essential team that must be present in Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib
hospital so that it can keep an eye on the data of patients, doctors, nurses and other employees in the
hospital. Also, the IT team will assist in keeping the network of the hospital by maintaining the
availability, integrity and confidentiality of the data and keep the system updated with the latest
technology to prevent any threat or vulnerability from happening that can have a negative impact on
the hospitals performance and reputation.

Human Resource Issues

Issues
Staff Shortages
The role of human resources in health care is extremely complicated, and it demands some more
explanation. For example, hiring a healthcare professional with certifications, many years of
experience and other factors can be too many expensive. This cost expenditure can impact the ability
to hire and retain other good practitioners in Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib Hospital. In addition to that,
healthcare professionals, whether doctor, nurses or any other healthcare worker, working in Dr.
Sulaiman Alhabib will require bonuses and benefits in addition to their basic salary that will
sometimes make it hard to decide as it can have a financial impact on the hospital.
Turnover rates
In addition to hiring shortages, hospital HR departments are battling to keep the qualified employees
they already have. With so many career opportunities available to medical professionals, it's all too
easy for employees to leave if they're unhappy or stressed. The universal element of a healthcare
professional's job is stress. If left addressed, the occupational stress that healthcare employees
endure on a daily basis can quickly lead to burnout. For example, most people's workdays are eight
hours long, with a wonderful noon break. It's very uncommon for nurses to work 12-hour shifts with
breaks dependent on patient needs. Nursing is a 24-hour career as well, with many people working
odd hours and night shifts.

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Employee Burnout
Staffing shortages contribute to burnout, which has a compounding effect on employee turnover.
Furthermore, burnout has a severe influence on both patient care and patient safety because
emotional, mental, and physical tiredness renders clinicians (including doctors and nurse
practitioners) incapable of performing at their best. There are a few additional variables that
contribute to burnout, such as employees feeling underappreciated, underutilized, and lacking
authority.

Solutions
Many solutions can be applied to overcome these human resource issues and enhance the
performance in Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib Hospital but some of them are going to be mentioned in this
research.

The first issue is “Staff Shortage”. When a human resource in Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib hospital attracts a
well fitted professional for a position in the hospital, this is considered a successful milestone. Hiring
professionals whether doctors, nurses, etc. can be hard and can consume a lot of time as both sides
know the advantages and disadvantages of the job. Human Resource Experts recommend to be
flexible when recruiting a healthcare professional and try giving messages like “We know it is a hard
job but together we can help patients to get through this easily”. In addition to that, experts
recommend to be negotiable and try to reach to a deal where both sides are benefited.

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The second issue is “Turnover rates”. Healthcare Professionals work for a long shift that could reach to
more than 12-hour shift while normal people can work for 8 hours shifts. Sometimes, healthcare
workers can work without having a regular and scheduled break so their breaks can come up suddenly
depending on the patient they are diagnosing. This is a hard work that is stressful and could have an
impact on the performance on the healthcare worker.

Workers in the healthcare industry are seeking for job satisfaction and improvement beside their
basic role, so giving them rewards, appreciation certifications and sometimes offering them training
sessions where they can improve their skills and abilities can reduce the likelihood of “burnout” which
is the third issue that most human resources in hospitals struggle with. Burnouts can be mitigated and
solved by motivating the healthcare worker and giving him/her the job satisfaction needed so that
there will always be a motivation to keep on progress in the hospital and enhance their own skills and
abilities even though the hospital did not provide them with these rewards or programs.

Conclusion
In the end, Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib Hospital is one of the biggest hospitals in the healthcare industry. It
has multiple branches in Riyadh, Dubai, Manama, etc. Operational and Human Resource Issues will
keep showing even though if it is solved, new issues will come to the light as the world around us
changes everyday. The medical field is hard field to maintain as there are two essential factors that
should always be present which are patient care and services that a patient receive and professional
healthcare workers such as doctor, nurses and other healthcare workers that work in the hospital and
how to maintain their rights and relaxation in the workplace to mitigate facing the issues mentioned
in this research.

Evaluation
This research, overall, demonstrated the main issues that the Saudi Healthcare can face in terms of
operation and human resource issue having an impact on the performance on the healthcare
workplace by giving an example which is Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib hospital. This research discussed the
issues in Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib and how to overcome these issues by providing some solutions in
solving these issues to enhance the performance of Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib hospital. This research can
be enhanced by conducting surveys or interviews among the healthcare workers in the hospital in

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order to gather more in-depth outcomes that could benefit this research. This research can be
continued as it can open up many other topics. One topic can be is comparing the strategy of Dr.
Sulaiman Alhabib hospital and other hospitals such as Dr. Abdul Rahman Al Mishari Hospital in dealing
with these operational and human resource issues, how they solve these issues and what
recommendations they give to mitigate these issues and enhance the performance in the Saudi Health
Industry in general.

References:
Ahmed, M. (2020, January 15). Healthcare opportunities and challenges in Saudi Arabia. Omnia
Website. https://insights.omnia-health.com/reports/healthcare-opportunities-and-
challenges-saudi-arabia
B, N. (2022, October 10). Top 6 HR Challenges in the Healthcare Industry. Peoplehum.
https://www.peoplehum.com/blog/hr-challenges-in-the-healthcare-industry
Fica, T. (n.d.). 4 Big Challenges Facing HR Professionals in the Healthcare Industry.
Www.bamboohr.com. Retrieved December 29, 2022, from
https://www.bamboohr.com/blog/challenges-facing-hr-professionals-healthcare-industry
O’Donnell, R. (2019, May 28). The HR Challenges Shaping the Healthcare Industry | Workest. Workest.
https://www.zenefits.com/workest/hr-challenges-in-healthcare-industry/
Walston, S., Al-Harbi, Y., & Al-Omar, B. (2018). The changing face of healthcare in Saudi Arabia. Annals
of Saudi Medicine, 28(4), 243–250. https://doi.org/10.5144/0256-4947.2008.243

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