KFSHRC triples down on telehealth with over 290,000 virtual visits in 2024

King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre has hit a new stride. In 2024, it delivered 293381 virtual consultations, up by a striking 58.2 percent year on year. That single number tells a story of a health system learning to breathe in a new rhythm. A story of access widening like an open highway.

Saudi Arabia has been pushing the digital health agenda for years, but this scale of adoption shows something deeper at work. It signals confidence. It hints at cultural change inside both clinics and homes.

How does it work?

The hospital rolled out virtual care in 2021. The idea was simple: help people far from major cities avoid long travel for routine check-ins. Now the service is part of daily life at the hospital. It logs more than 800 virtual visits every single day. Outpatient clinics feel lighter. The queues are shorter. Doctors spend less time on simple follow-ups and more on complex cases that need hands-on attention.

The hospital did not stop at remote medical visits. In 2024, it added a virtual pharmacy consultation service delivered through its mobile app. Patients can schedule time with a pharmacist to discuss medication switches, chronic therapies, or dose adjustments. Instead of walking through hospital corridors, they do it with a tap and a screen. Routine pharmaceutical counselling moved online in a way that feels natural, scalable, and easier on everyone involved.

A few things stand out:

• The service cuts unnecessary hospital trips
• Elderly people and chronic care patients benefit most
• Digital touchpoints are no longer side features - they are core operations

Why does it matter?

Growth at this pace is no accident. It shows how technology can absorb pressure instead of letting clinics overflow. The surge in virtual consultations has cooled the congestion in high-demand clinics and freed up physicians for cases that truly require in-person care. It also trims system costs tied to unnecessary visits. For families, especially those juggling work, travel, or limited mobility, this means direct access to specialists without packing a bag or arranging transport.

The human side is simple - when care reaches the patient instead of the other way round, health feels lighter. Easier. Fairer.

And then there is scale. Few hospitals in the region have adopted remote clinical services at this level. That alone is shaping patient expectations and setting a regional benchmark.

The context

Saudi Arabia is in the middle of a health sector transformation under Vision 2030. The plan aims to grow efficiency, expand specialist access, and reduce the strain on tertiary hospitals. Digital health is a key lever. KFSHRC is proving that the shift can work in practice, integrating remote care into everyday operations while maintaining quality. It is becoming a case study in smart system design. A proof that high-volume specialty centres can ride rising demand without buckling.

Virtual care in Saudi Arabia is no longer an experiment. It is infrastructure. And it is working.