| The scope of this study was to explore the current implementations of Electronic Health Record systems in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, focusing on those factors which are recognized to be barriers for such implementations. Using a questionnaire that was distributed to six major hospitals in Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Medical Complex, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSH&RC), Riyadh Armed Forces Hospitals, King Fahad National Guard Hospital, King Fahad University Hospitals and Saudi Germany Hospitals, this study attempted to identify which barriers actually affect the implementation of EHR systems in Saudi Arabia. A sample size of 480 was used for this project (80 per hospital). Six groups of health care professionals participated in this study: physicians, pharmacists, nurses, lab technicians, administration staff, and medical records staff.;Chi-square analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used on the collected questionnaire data to identify those factors which are significant barriers to EHR implementations in Saudi Arabia. Results indicate that there is no correlation between age and education level and the implementation of EHR systems. Also, of the ten barriers recognized as being of hindrance to the implementation of EHR systems, eight were found to be significant in Saudi Arabia. These are high costs of adaptation, instability of vendors, patient confidentiality and privacy, lack of experience with the use of computers, lack of quality and high complexity of EHR systems, security in the access and use of EHR systems, lack of uniform standards, and system maintenance and downtime. Lack of awareness towards the usefulness of such systems and resistance to adopting new technologies were not found to be significant barriers in Saudi Arabia. |
