Technology in Saudi Arabia Health Management

Investigating the role of technology towards enhanced health service management in local hospitals

 

Introduction

              The use of technology in conducting day to day businesses has become inevitable across the globe. Most countries have either adapted or putting in place strategies to facilitate the adoption of technological trends. The latter applies most to developing countries.  A 2010-2011 report by the Global Information Technology ranked Saudi Arabia as the 33rd networked readiness country in the world ( Dutta & Mia, 2012). Another report by the STC group in Saudi Arabia notes that ICT is a strong pillar towards the realization of the ninth Saudi Arabia’s development plan as it has immediate impacts on the way business and trade are done globally (Al-Daweesh, 2011). Emerging technologies are one of the factors that greatly affect health service management in Saudi Arabia.

Background-Current Status of technology application in Saudi Arabia hospitals

Technology is dynamic in nature as new trends are being innovated on a daily basis. The unpredictable nature of technology has challenged for hospitals that are constantly striving to catch up with the fast pace. Joel and Kell, researchers in ICT and health observe that hospitals not only in Saudi Arabia but across the globe are these modern technologies are also complicated in nature as their use change how existing health services are being delivered (Joel & Kell, 2012).

Furthermore, the pressure for hospitals to upgrade their technologies in order to enhance the quality outcome of their services is mounting on hospital institutional leaders who are caught up in the complex decision making processes (Altuwaijir, 2011). These new technologies have benefited hospital service providers but have brought along an equal share of challenges. Hospital managers have noted a major challenge as the lack of integrating individual staff technology decisions into the overall organization’s mission and strategy for the long term (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Healthcare Overview, 2012). Another team of researchers in Saudi Arabia working on telemedicine, a form of technology oriented service in hospitals today, established that the biggest hindrance faced by providers of health services is the lack of user oriented information on technology. They recommend proper distribution of technology information and technology trainings for professionals in the health sector to empower them         (Mohammad Khalaf Ahmad, 2012).

The use of technology in Saudi Arabia’s hospitals is gaining momentum as most hospital leaders have embraced the idea. However, there is still need for hospital staff technology empowerment in order to enhance health service management. The goal of this study is to analyze lack of adequate technological skill among Saudi Arabia hospital staff as one of the factors that hinder the enhancement of health service management. The study will seek to answer the following research questions:

  1. What types of technology application are being used in local Saudi Arabia hospitals?
  2. What is the percentage of public verses private hospitals that have adapted the use of technology in their operations ?
  3. What is the technological literacy level for hospital staff in Saudi Arabia?
  4. What special skills do hospital staffs need to implement technologically oriented health service management?

Rationale of this study

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The use of technology by hospitals in Saudi Arabia has transformed the health sector operation as it has brought about various advantages. For instance, the keeping of patients’ records was done manually in the past years. Patients’ registers with their details would be handwritten and then filed in various folders arranged in categories. These not only occupied a lot of space in hospital offices but also put the documents at the risk of getting lost or being destroyed by natural disasters such as fires in hospital buildings.

The use of technology has made work easier. Today, a patient can visit any branch of the main hospital that is closely located with confidence that their records can still be accessed due to a centralized system of information used in hospital. The use of technology has also minimized cases of hospital records from getting lost. (Bilal Yaseen, Syazwan Abdullah & Rozaini Sheik, 2011) warns that, ‘’Lost medical records expose patients to considerable risk of medical mistakes because physicians would not be able  to draw connections between the current health conditions of the patients and their medical history; namely, diagnosis, drugs’ effects, and surgery risks assessment.’’

The use of technology to enhance health service management is only a step. In fact, most leaders in Saudi Arabia’s hospitals have expressed their concerns in regards to the existing staff capacity in the process of planning for new technology trends in health service provision (Joel & Kell, 2012). The bulk of the process is in ensuring that the hospital staffs are efficiently empowered in handling and using the technological devices and process to enable quality service provision. This research proposes that health stakeholders should embrace technology empowerment measures to bridge the gap in technological literacy in order to increase the use modern technology in hospitals.

Research Design and Methodology

The study will be conducted in 40 hospitals to evaluate the preparedness of hospital staff in handling new technologies to enhance health service management. The number 40 represents 10% of the total hospitals in Saudi Arabia, according to the ministry of health report in 2012. 60% of 415 are hospitals managed by the government while the other 40% are operated by private stakeholders.

The study will thus be conducted in 24 public hospitals and 16 private hospitals which is a representation of 10% (Balkhair, 2012). The reason for this will be to make comparisons between the rate of technology adoptions between public and private hospitals. This will also evaluate technology advancement to determine service management in both private and public hospitals, to find the different measures applied by hospital managements in reinforcing the use of technology in their hospitals. The table below gives a breakdown of hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

Number of Hospitals in Saudi Arabia

Health Sector

Current Number

Projection in 5 years to come

Ministry of Health

249

370

Other Government Agencies

39

50

Private Sector

127

200

Total

415

620

Courtesy MOH, Saudi Arabia-e-learning program

 The Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies will be applied. The qualitative method will evaluate staff preparedness and efficiency in the use of new technologies. In-depth interviews will be held with representatives of the hospital management, to evaluate their efforts in using new technologies in their general hospitals services. Two sets of questionnaires will be use disbursed, one to the randomly selected patients who will be visiting the selected hospitals at the time of this study, in order to get their feedback on their methodology to be used views on the use of technology. Another set of questionnaires will be given to randomly selected hospital staff to evaluate their technology preparedness, skills and trainings.

Quantitative data will be collected from published literature including reports on ICT incorporation in the health sector, existing ICT policies and implementation strategies. The lead researcher will oversee data analysis process using SPSS to determine findings.

Research Findings Dissemination

Once the research is complete, effective methods will be used to disseminate the findings to the relevant stakeholders. A summary report will be given to the Government’s Ministry of health to help inform its ICT policy formulation and decision making process. Copies will be distributed to hospitals management boards to implement best practices highlighted in the recommendation section of the report. ICT experts will also be informed to help them design better hospital oriented technology software. The internet will be used to inform the general Saudi public. The proposed research activities will take a period of 12 weeks from project commissioning to the delivery of the final report to allow for information clarification.

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