Perceived Barriers Among Healthcare Professionals for Access to Physical Therapy Service in Saudi Arabia

Objective To examine physical therapy scope of practice and to describe the barriers and facilitators for access to physical therapy services as reported by healthcare professionals in Saudi Arabia. Methods Ninety physical therapists from the 6 hospitals in the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam were surveyed by the cross-sectional questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed through email invitation or in-person. The questionnaire was developed to determine the perceived barriers to direct access to physical therapy service among healthcare professionals. Results The present study had a response rate of 77.7% (70 out of 90 physical therapists). Majority of the participants were in the age group range of 21-30 years (41.4%) and 68.6% of the respondents' highest educational qualification is a Baccalaureate degree. The gender distribution showed that the majority of the respondents were female (51.4%). More than a quarter of the participants had a clinical experience that ranges from 6 to 10 years. Majority of the participants were working in the city hospital (88.6%). Most of the participants strongly agreed or -agreed that the factors included in the questionnaire such as geographical accessibility, availability, affordability, and acceptability of services were barriers to provide access to physical therapy services in Saudi Arabia. Conclusions This study documents many of the perceived barriers for access to providing physical therapy services in Saudi Arabia such as geographical accessibility, availability, affordability, and acceptability of services. Furthermore, the identified barriers could be used as a framework by policymaker and the third party payment system in order to further improve access to physical therapy services in Saudi Arabia.