Assessment of employee engagement in pharmaceutical care service at King Abdulaziz Medical City – Central region (KAMC): A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Job engagement and satisfaction are crucial for any successful institution, in recent years, organizations around the globe have begun measuring the engagement level of employees in order to improve productivity and profitability. Employee engagement has the potential to significantly affect employee retention and loyalty. This study was conducted by the pharmacy-Quality Improvement Section to assess pharmacy staff engagement in KAMC-CR in 2019 and to develop a tool to be used as employee engagement key performance indicator (KPI). AIM: (1) Assessing employee engagement and satisfaction in the pharmacy Care services- central region. And (2) to develop a tool to be used as employee engagement Key Performance Indicator (KPI). METHODS: This study was conducted at the Pharmaceutical Care Service at King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC) and King Abdullah Specialized Children Hospital (KASCH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A validated survey was selected for the study and was then distributed via e-mail to the pharmacy staff by the quality pharmacy section in October-November 2019. The included participants were comprised of administrators, administrative assistants, clinical pharmacists, pharmacists, technicians, pharmacy aides, and pharmacy residents. There are 20 questions in the survey, and the answers were reported using a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). The survey was composed of sections including demographic data, and section for staff engagement and rating of facility. RESULTS: Participants in this study included 228 (54 %) employees out of a total of 420 employees. The mean health facility rating was 6.51 + 1.94 out of 10. As for the employee engagement, the mean score was 65.53 ± 13.84, and the engagement level was 24 (10.5%) had low level of engagement, 122 (53.5%) had moderate level of engagement, and 82 (36%) had high level of engagement. High level of engagement was reported among the studied sample. Employee engagement was significantly associated with occupation, work experience (p = 0.001), as well as rating of the facility (satisfaction) (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Pharmaceutical care services participants overall average rate of the facility by pharmaceutical care services staff as a workplace is 6.5 out of 10. The Employees engagement improves employee performance and efficiency, which contribute to an organization’s overall success.