Implementation status of health information systems in hospitals in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia

Telemedicine Policy Availability and Awareness: Directions for Improvement

“…3 Modern technology has enabled healthcare practitioners (HCPs) to remotely record patient medical information, such as physiological signs, lab results, radiology images, and medication history. 12 ICT plays a key role in reducing healthcare costs, medical errors, and patient complaints. 3 The World Health Organization (WHO) describes telemedicine as "delivery of healthcare services, where distance is a critical factor, by all the healthcare professionals using ICT for the exchange of valid information for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, research and evaluation".…”

“…11 Telemedicine is not limited to transferring information through video consultation; audio, picture, text, and data sharing support health services, surveillance, education, and research as well. 12 The NHIC published the Saudi Health Information Exchange (SeHE) policy in 2016 in line with Saudi Vision 2030 to monitor and evaluate privacy and security of telemedicine. 11,31 The Ministry of Health (MOH) launched an e-health strategy, emphasizing the use of telemedicine in order to improve accessibility and quality of care for patients.…”

Gig Health vs eHealth: Future Prospects in Saudi Arabian Health-Care System

“…In addition, it was observed that most of the functionalities of electronic clinical documentation and viewing categories were fully implemented in a majority of hospitals, about half the functions in the decision-support category were either fully implemented or not implemented, and most of the bar-coding functions were fully implemented in a majority of the hospitals, except for the supply-chain function, which was not available in 44% of the hospitals. 40 The findings from the studies 39 , 40 indicate the progress in the deployment of eHealth technologies in Saudi Arabia. However, issues related to organizational operations, cultures, end-user attitudes toward eHealth projects, the lack of specialized human resources to implement eHealth systems, 13 poor eHealth frameworks, and lack of strategies managing information, creating awareness, increasing accessibility and reachability, promoting self-management and self-collaboration, promoting electronic services, and extensive stakeholder engagement 41 were identified.…”

“…38 In Saudi Arabia, implementation of eHealth technologies has been gaining momentum, with various initiatives taken by the government to digitize health care as a part of Vision 2030. A study in 2011 39 identified that there are only three of the 19 major government hospitals had adopted electronic health-record systems, while in a study conducted in 2020, 40 among 18 hospitals in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia, all hospitals were implementing health-information systems at various levels. In addition, it was observed that most of the functionalities of electronic clinical documentation and viewing categories were fully implemented in a majority of hospitals, about half the functions in the decision-support category were either fully implemented or not implemented, and most of the bar-coding functions were fully implemented in a majority of the hospitals, except for the supply-chain function, which was not available in 44% of the hospitals.…”

“…(Interviewee 3) This statement indicated that the country is in the process of digital transformation in health care, which can be understood from other findings. 39,40 The General Organization for Social Insurance, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Development and the Human Resources Development Fund, launched various programs to support gig workers as part of Vision 2030. Training in 78 designated professional roles was provided that also included healthcare professionals, allowing youth to explore gig opportunities and a reduction in unemployment.…”