ArticleAnnals of Saudi medicine
The characteristics and distribution of emergency medical services in Saudi Arabia.
Article in Annals of Saudi medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Public awareness about the emergency conditions and services provided by emergency medical services in the Northern Border Region of Saudi Arabia.International journal of emergency medicine · 2026Article
- National Assessment of Emergency, Intensive Care, and Anesthesia Physician Distribution in Saudi Arabia, 2023: Implications for Emergency Care Access.Emergency medicine international · 2026Article
- Characteristics and Distribution of Radiologists in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study Based on National Data.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Predictive modelling in times of public health emergencies: patients' non-transport decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Prehospital Trauma Quality Improvement: The Role of Prehospital Database in Improving Timely Access to Trauma Care.World journal of surgery · 2025Article
- A Cross-Sectional Study of Drowning in Saudi Arabia Using First Responder Data.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Impact of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation on out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival in Saudi Arabia: a retrospective multiregional analysis.Postepy w kardiologii interwencyjnej = Advances in interventional cardiology · 2025Article
- Effects of workload and distance traveled on psychological resilience and values among emergency healthcare workers.Turkish journal of medical sciences · 2025Article
- Characteristics and distribution of respiratory therapy practitioners in Saudi Arabia: national cross-sectional results.Human resources for health · 2024Article
- What Drives Paramedics to Serve in Rural and Remote Communities?Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Implementing Prehospital Ultrasound at the Saudi Red Crescent Authority: Perceived Barriers and Training Needs.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEmergency medical services (EMS) play an essential role in treating and transporting patients to hospitals or between hospitals. EMS providers must be distributed wisely across all regions of the country to meet healthcare needs during normal times and disasters. No previous study has investigated the characteristics and distribution of the EMS workforce in Saudi Arabia.
objectivesExamine the characteristics and distribution of the EMS workforce in Saudi Arabia to identify gaps and areas in need of improvement. Also, explore the sociodemographic and educational characteristics of licensed EMS providers in Saudi Arabia.
designCross-sectional SETTINGS: EMS in Saudi Arabia
methodsWe included all licensed EMS providers in Saudi Arabia as of 23 December 2020 who were registered in the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS) database. Sociodemographics, where they earned certification, and their job affiliations were collected and categorized.
main outcome measuresEMS workforce distribution, gender, and EMS provider-to-population ratio. SAMPLE SIZE: 18 336 EMS providers; 8812 (48.1%) with documented job affiliations.
resultsThe EMS provider-to-population ratio is very low. In Saudi Arabia, in general, the ratio is 1:3871 (based on n=8812 providers), which is low compared to the 1:1400 ratio for Australian EMS provider-to-population, for example. That makes it a challenge for EMS providers to meet the population's needs, especially in times of disaster. The low ratio may have contributed to the delayed response time in Saudi Arabia (13 minutes for critical cases) which does not meet the international standard response time (8 minutes maximum). Also, only 3.5% of the total EMS providers registered were females, and the clear majority of all EMS providers were technicians.
conclusionsThe growth in the EMS workforce, including the recruitment of more females into the workforce and more EMS specialists compared to EMS technicians and health assistants, is critical to reaching a satisfactory EMS provider-to-population ratio. LIMITATIONS: Most noteworthy of the limitations of this research are the insufficient statistics describing EMS distribution in Saudi Arabia, the lack of previous studies on the research topic in Saudi Arabia, and job affiliation not accurately recorded in the SCFHS database. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.