(IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications,
Vol.P a g e
www.ijacsa.thesai.org
Healthcare Providers' Perceptions towards Health
Information Applications at King Abdul-Aziz
Medical City, Saudi Arabia
Abeer Al-Harbi
Health & Hospital Administration department, College of Business Administration
King Saud University (KSU)
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Abstract-
The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions of
healthcare providers towards health information technology
applications in King Abdul-Aziz Medical City in terms of
benefits, barriers, and motivations.CPR system provides for an array of
technological imperatives, including Computerized Physician
Order Entry (CPOE), Clinical Decision Support (CDS),
automated nursing documentation, integrated pharmacy and
automated medication administration.As for drivers, healthcare
providers generally would be motivated to use the IT applications
by provision of new applications and training, contribution in
change hospital's work procedures, and provision of technical
support.A
review of the literature reveals that there is significant
consensus that the implementation of electronic health records
(EHRs) and HIT systems is considered among the highest
priorities of modern healthcare systems [3].There have been many studies investigating IT acceptance in
different settings at both individual and organizational levels of
analysis and different theoretical models have been used
[13,14].However, most Saudi health
organizations have no electronic health records (HER) systems
implemented in their facilities, and they are totally dependent
either on manual paper work or on very basic software tools to
do their day to day tasks such as patient admissions [21].A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on
extended literature review and comprised 25 statements on a fivepoint
Likert-scale.CPR is a single integrated system with a
comprehensive suite of modules that provides depth and
breadth of patient-care support and workflow management.Despite the increasing availability of health
information technology applications, anecdotal evidence
suggests that its use has not been well accepted by healthcare
providers [11,12].A CPOE system, for
example, makes prescription orders legible, identifies the
correct medication and dose as well as signals alerts forA sample size of 623 was drawn from a population of
7493 healthcare providers using convenience random sampling
method.Results indicate that the majority of healthcare providers use
KAMC health information applications.The majority of
healthcare providers perceived that the applications are valuable
and beneficial.Keywords- Healthcare providers; Health Information Technology;
Computerized Patient Record; King Abdul-Aziz Medical City.Clinical practices rely heavily on the collection and analysis
of medical data for decision-making abilities when caring for
patients [4].Health information technology is in general increasingly
viewed as the most promising tool for improving the overall
quality, safety and efficiency of the health delivery system [6,7,
8].The institute of Medicine (IOM) identified information
technology as one the critical forces that could significantly
improve healthcare quality and safety [9].One of the most challenging areas of health information
technology is integrating it into the workflow of the healthcare
providers [10].KAMC is one of the few hospitals that have a basic EHR
system which was later replaced by a computerized Patient
Record (CPR) system.CPR system streamlines administrative functions and
eliminates paperwork to get caregivers back in the business of
quality patient care.The study population consists of all healthcare providers working
at KAMC.Finally, there were significant differences in the
perceptions with respect to gender, occupation, and training.The literature provides evidence of failed clinical
system implementations, due to lack of adoption by users [15].However, with few significant exceptions, information system
research is scarce regarding information technology acceptance
in a healthcare environment [16,17,18,19].In Saudi Arabia, the government strives to improve quality
and safety of healthcare services through adoption health
information technology [20].However, healthcare providers were split over the
barriers to HIT use in KAMC.Also, there were many barriers identified by healthcare
providers.I. INTRODUCTION
a. Health Information Technology (HIT):
Healthcare information technology (HIT) has become a key
preoccupation of healthcare systems worldwide [1, 2].Thus, health information systems are capable of
having a significant, positive impact on patient care within
healthcare settings [5].These were insufficient number of computers,
frequent system down, and the use of computerized systems is
time consuming.Acceptance of information technologies has
occupied a central role in information technology research.2, No. 10, 2011
14 |377 were returned, giving a response rate of 60.5%.