EMR Implementation in Eastern Prominence: Challenges and Opportunities Towards EMR Benefits Management

This research aims to investigate the current status of EMR implementation in the Eastern provenance of Saudi Arabia to identify the level of implementation, main challenges and to identify the main opportunities to exploit the power of EMR in this region. It is based on surveying 23 hospitals and a focus group from different hospitals. None of the hospitals in this area has fully implemented the EMR. Although there is a positive attitude towards EMR, the main critical reasons for why hospitals having different implementation levels are the believe that EMR enhances the quality of services provided and the level of top management support to implement EMR. The main challenges are the level of fund to support EMR in post-implementation phase; users (doctors, nurses and administrative staff) need continuous training on the system; and devoting and dedicating benefits management team to assure the benefits are identified, planned, owned, realised and reviewed so that the top management support is ongoing.