Healthcare Providers’ Perceptions towards Health Information Applications at King Abdul-Aziz Medical City, Saudi Arabia

Journal Article

2011

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. The study population consists of all healthcare providers working at KAMC. A sample size of 623 was drawn from a population of 7493 healthcare providers using convenience random sampling method. 377 were returned, giving a response rate of 60.5%. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on extended literature review and comprised 25 statements on a five-point Likert-scale. 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. However, healthcare providers were split over the barriers to HIT use in KAMC. 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. Also, there were many barriers identified by healthcare providers. These were insufficient number of computers, frequent system down, and the use of computerized systems is time consuming. Finally, there were significant differences in the perceptions with respect to gender, occupation, and training.