EXPLORING THE IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES OF ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS (EMR) IN SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

Background: In Saudi Arabia, implementation of EHR in healthcare organizations is an important issue. There is still a relatively low rate of adoption despite massive funding of healthcare organizations by the Saudi government. Furthermore, some hospitals still face problems in relation to their technical competence due to which previous attempts to introduce EMR/EHR have failed. Aim: The major aim of this research is to explore the best framework to successfully deal with implementation issues of EMR in the healthcare system of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This research conducted in-depth semi structured with health professional in hospitals and thematic analysis conducted to identify the major issues and enables of EMR in MOH of Saudi Arabia. Results: It has been identified there is lack coordination, collaboration among employees, organizational leaders and political leadership. Moreover, there is lack of required skills and employees are demanding for advancing skills and fair rewards for their efforts. Different practical recommendations have been suggested by the participants which can increase the readiness and openness for adopting EMR technology in Saudi public sector hospitals. The investment must be made by hospital management in training & interactive sessions, enhance reward for improved level of personal performance, foster communication, conduct training sessions, discuss the scope and benefit of EMR, recruit more staff, increased supervision support, and fair division of workload among hospital staff. The adoption of such practices can improve the overall performance of the staff. Conclusion: it is concluded that there are different issues have been identified such as low qualification, IT skills, lack of motivation, workload, and commitment towards adopting EMR. There are also issues related with long working hours, lack of sufficient staff in hospitals, lack of training & development, lack of upgrading, lack of integration among different systems, privacy & confidentiality related challenges, and lack of technical support and staff.