Adoption of electronic health records in Saudi Arabia hospitals: Knowledge and usage

Abstract

BackgroundSaudi Arabia is paying a high attention to medically serve patients through advanced healthcare including: electronic health records (EHR). It is an electronic version of patient medical history that may incorporate essential administrative, clinical, laboratorial, radiological information. Locally, there were many researches and studies conducted to measure the awareness and implementation of e-health technologies including EHRs in Saudi Arabia. However, the aim of this research is to investigate the knowledge and usage levels of EHRs among different health care providers in Saudi Arabia. Materials and MethodsBy using a survey, this cross-sectional study is conducted to examine the knowledge and usage levels of EHRs among different health care providers at different sized hospitals from different provinces in Saudi Arabia. Statistical Analysis System software was employed in this study's analysis. ResultsThere were 521 participants from different healthcare occupations involved to examine the knowledge and usage levels of EHRs in Saudi Arabia. 84.84 % of those participants are Saudis while 15.16 % of them are non-Saudis. 54.52 % of the participants are males while 45.48 % of them are females. Most participants were in the age group 31–40 years. ConclusionsIt is showing a high rate of knowledge and usage levels among both Saudi and non-Saudi healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia. Also, the using of EHRs for patients’ services in hospitals have been increased including: laboratory reports, medication prescription, following up, and hospitalization. However, there might be a little lack of participants' skills of using EHRs because of the lack of attending training programs of EHRs.