Introduction
Despite the fact that the global health platform has fully embraced the concept of Electronic Health Records (EHR) in the management of patient information, Saudi Arabia still lags behind on the same. One of the reasons that has been attributed to the failure of many Saudi Arabian hospitals to take up EHRs is the lack of a centralized health care system. It can be argued that patient privacy and health information security in Saudi Arabia are a non-issue. According to Ash and Bates, Saudi Arabia faces major barriers that affect its ability to take up technological advances in health (8).
Literature Review
Electronic Health Records have become a critical data management system for many hospitals in the first world countries. Carter explains that the main purpose of the EHRs is to manage patient data effectively and securely (4). The importance of the EHRs, therefore, emanates from the importance of securing patient information. Wang et al. go further and explain that the EHRs have multi-functional capabilities that ensure proper and quality service provision to the patients (399). Indeed, past research shows that investing in EHRs have allowed hospitals to streamline patient care through easy access to patient information when, and as, needed. Additionally, communication between the different health care professionals, who see a patient, is made easier and clearer (Swartz 23). Research has shown that EHRs are better than manual paper medical records due to omissions, miscommunication, delays and even misplacements (Coffey 54), all of which are averted in EHRs. Another major advantage of EHRs is that they support e-Health, a component that has revolutionized the medical field.
Despite the advantages, many countries, including Saudi Arabia, find it difficult to adopt and implement EHRs. Some of the reasons that have been given as to why this is so include the lack of knowledge on computer usage, cyber security concerns, the cost of implementing the EHRs, and general resistance to change (Angst and Agarwal 340).
Methodology
The study employed the use of quantitative research where both primary and secondary data were collected. Interviews, guided by questionnaires, were done in ten hospitals and the Directorate of Health Affairs in Saudi Arabia. The ten hospitals that were included in the study were Rehabilitation Hospital, King Fahad Hospital, Karra Hospital, Psychiatric Hospital, Hajra Hospital, Mandaq Hospital, Baljurashi Hospital, Qilwa Hospital, Mikwah Hospital and Aqiq Hospital. A total of 1754 surveys were done. The sample size was divided into six groups, depending on job description. The six groups were administrative staff, lab technicians, physicians, medical records, nurses and pharmacists.
Results
To lower bias and to ensure that the selection of the sample size was random, the researcher used a confidence level of 95%. Through the questionnaire, the respondents were asked to pick out reasons as to why EHRs were not implemented in the various hospitals they worked/ had not been fully implemented and adopted in Saudi Arabia. Results showed that the four most common barriers to implementation and adoption of EHRs in Saudi Arabia are costs of the EHRs system, lack of computer skills, privacy and security concerns and adapting to the new technology. 55.2% of the respondents rated costs of the EHRs system as the major barrier while 57.3% agreed that it was the difficulty in adaptation to the new system that led to the failure of implementation of EHRs in Saudi Arabia. 52.1% claimed that privacy and security concerns were the biggest barrier while 66.6% of the respondents rated lack of computer skills highly compared to the other barriers.
Results were also measured against the respondents’ level of computer skills, knowledge of the EHRs systems, gender, level of education, hospital they worked in and their profession.
Discussion
Suffices to point out, 57.5% of the respondents stated that their organization had fully implemented the EHRs systems while 20.4% agreed that their organizations had partially implemented the EHRs systems. 22.1% agreed that their organizations had not implemented the EHRs systems at all. Additionally, since multiple correlation tests were done in the study, Bonferroni adjustment was used to analyze the hypotheses. On the same note, all the tests were done at a 97.5% confidence level. It is important to point out that through the study, resistance to change (in the form of the new system) was not considered a big barrier.
Conclusions and Recommendations
In conclusion, it can be argued that the difficulties associated with implementation and adoption of the EHRs systems in Saudi Arabia are different depending on the organization (hospital) and individual (medical professionals) exposure such as computer skills, level of education and profession. It is recommended that the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia put in place policies that support the implementation and adoption of EHRs systems in all hospitals due to the relevance of the same. It is also recommended that the government supports the training of the health care professionals on the importance of EHRs systems.
Works Cited
Angst, M. Corey, and Ritu Agarwal. “Adoption of Electronic Health Records in the Presence of Privacy Concerns: The Elaboration Likelihood Model and Individual Persuasion.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 2, 2009, pp. 339-370.
Ash, S. Joan, and David W. Bates. “Factors and Forces Affecting EHR System Adoption: Report of a 2004 ACMI Discussion.” Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, vol. 12, no. 1, 2005, pp. 8-12.
Carter, H. Jerome. Electronic Health Records: A Guide for Clinicians and Administrators. Center for Health Statistics. ACP Press, 2008.
Coffey, Carla et al. “A Comparison of Paper Documentation to Electronic Documentation for Trauma Resuscitations at a Level I Pediatric Trauma Center.” Journal of Emergency Nursing, vol. 41, no. 1, 2015, pp. 52-56.
Swartz, Norbert. “A Prescription for Electronic Health Records. Information Management Journal, vol. 38, no. 4, 2004, pp. 20-26.
Wang, Samuel et al. “A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Electronic Medical Records in Primary Care.” The American Journal of Medicine, vol. 114, no. 5, 2003, pp. 397-403.