Electronic Health Records (EHRs): Effectiveness to Health Care Outcomes and Challenges of Health Practitioners in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Recently, Electronic Health Records (EHRs) were regarded as an important factor implicating the majority of health care facilities. This study identified the effectiveness of electronic health records to health care outcomes and determined the challenges experienced by health practitioners while putting EHRs into practice. The research was descriptive and cross-sectional. The study was conducted in selected government and private hospitals throughout Saudi Arabia's regions. A sample of three hundred twenty (N = 320) health practitioners who are members of the medical department, nursing department, and paramedical department were the participants of the study. A self-structured questionnaire, which included questions about the effectiveness of EHRs in five categories: quality of patient care, patient engagement, support team-based care, workload, data liquidity; and challenges in the implementation of electronic health records, was the tool utilized for data collection. Data were analyzed with the mean, standard deviation, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis’s tests, and Spearman's rho. The study revealed that EHRs are moderately effective in improving health care outcomes. Age, place of work, and years of experience with the use of EHRs are critical indicators of effectiveness, but health practitioners’ discipline is not a factor in determining the effectiveness of EHRs use. Health practitioners who apply EHRs to improve health care outcomes particularly to support team-based care face more challenges in their implementation.