Abstract
Background: Annual home-service counts can describe the relationship between recorded caseload and reported workforce, but their interpretation depends on the time reference, service boundaries and denominator. Saudi recipient, caregiver and workforce studies show that homecare encompasses different clinical populations and care arrangements. The present analysis examines Central Saudi Arabia within a transparent national comparison, without treating a caseload-to-headcount ratio as individual workload, service quality or population access.
Methods: An exploratory descriptive reconstruction used the Ministry of Health (MOH) Statistical Yearbook 2024, Table 4-67. Seventeen source rows were mapped to thirteen administrative regions using the workbook's official service-area crosswalk. A published five-region analytical grouping was retained separately. Central comprised Riyadh and Qassim. Compatible counts were summed before calculating year-end cases per reported worker, year-end cases divided by cumulative recorded beneficiaries, and the difference between each broad region's national case share and worker share. Source counts were reconciled against the official total row. No sampling confidence intervals, significance tests, clinical outcomes or staffing adequacy thresholds were introduced.
Results: Central had 60 reporting hospitals, no separately reported home centers, 730 reported workers, 12,440 cases under service at year end and 15,999 cumulative beneficiaries at year end. The aggregate caseload-to-worker ratio was 17.04 and the recorded active-to-cumulative ratio was 77.75%. Riyadh recorded 8,165 cases and 494 workers, giving 16.53 cases per worker; Qassim recorded 4,275 cases and 236 workers, giving 18.11. Central's share of national year-end cases was 5.15 percentage points below its share of reported workers. The national compatible counts were 58,445 cases and 2,761 workers.
Conclusions: Central's recorded caseload and workforce can be reconstructed reproducibly from the source table. Differences between Riyadh and Qassim and between the five broad regions merit source-definition review. The records do not establish staff time, clinical intensity, unmet need, quality, efficiency or patient outcomes.
Keywords
- Home Care Services
- Health Workforce
- Workload
- Health Services Administration
- Saudi Arabia
Declarations
- Ethics approval
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- Consent to participate
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- Consent for publication
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- Funding
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- Competing interests
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- Author contributions
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- Data availability
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- Registration
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- Acknowledgements
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