Impact Of Using Modern Technology In The Field Of Emergency Medicine In Health Facilities In Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Saudi Arabia has heavily invested in healthcare technology in line with the vision 2030, there is a big gap in the awareness of the actual effects of this technology on emergency departments (EDs). The research evaluated the application and the success of contemporary technologies, such as Electronic Health Records, telemedicine, and point-of-care testing, in Saudi EDs. It was a cross-sectional survey of 350 healthcare professionals working in major hospitals in Riyadh and Makkah. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, t-tests and regression modeling. In the study, the overall score of technology adoption was moderate (68.5/100), with a positive correlation, though, strongly positive between technology adoption and workflow efficiency (r=0.612, p<0.001) and patient care quality (r=0.578, p<0.001). There were pronounced differences: the private and the public hospitals performed better in adoption (76.8 vs. 63.1, p<0.001) and results, whereas the paramedics recorded poorer results than the physicians. The regression model accounted 62.1% of the variance of satisfaction among users (p<0.001) and poor training has been found as a potential obstacle. The research concludes that the implementation gap and training gap needs specific measures to close in order to exploit the potential of technology in Saudi emergency care.