Evaluation of e-Health records system: Case study albatool teaching hospital in Iraq

Abstract

The Information Technology (IT) in the Iraqi health sector is ignored, and the health paper-based (HPB) system cannot contain the whole information about the patient and cannot be shared with different locations at the same time and the medical errors kill many people yearly. For that, there is a need to be replaced by the electronic records that can include: medical history, investigations, medications, allergies, laboratory tests, nursing notes, and many other notes. The aim of this study is to assess the adoption and barriers to the adoption of the electronic health records (EHRs) system at Albatool Teaching Hospital. The study was descriptive and not statically, data collected from direct interviews with healthcare technology providers, professional nurses, and physicians. The study found successful utilization of the EHS in the outpatient’s department of the hospital and underutilization in the emergency department, and other departments due to many barriers especially the not well-trained staff in the hospital and the workload from a high number of patients and problems in the system itself and its update. Training the staff and provide the hospital with all required information technology technical support was recommended.