Proposing a solution to overcome the challenges of implementing Dissertation

Proposing a solution to overcome the challenges of implementing unified E- healthcare information system standards at Armed Forc - Dissertation Example The healthcare sector lacks the infrastructure to address the nation’s problems. Long-term planning is affected due to lack of reliable data on health facilities available in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The motivation for the study has arisen to evaluate how the situation can be improved in the armed forces sector, as this sector operates independent of the MOH. If the armed forces hospitals are able to effectively adopt and implement IT in the healthcare sector, the government too could be keen to emulate. Thus, with the aim to propose technological solutions to overcome the challenges in implementing the best healthcare system at the armed forces hospital in KSA, three objectives were set. Through extensive literature review and through a quality study based purely on secondary data, the study objectives have been achieved. Lack of funds, lack of a national regulatory body, shortage of national medical experts, lack of IT infrastructure, lack of standards across vendors, la ck of national data exchange plan are some of the barriers to adoption of healthcare standards in Saudi Arabia. Efforts have been made to identify the best healthcare systems in the world. Sweden appears to have the best e-healthcare strategy in the world. It even surpasses the healthcare system of the United States if the measure of quality is based on the life index of a country. Autonomy and medical data exchange are some of the other salient features in these two countries. Developing an efficient archetype, clinical process mapping and resource templates are some of the tools which have emerged as best practices in Sweden. Sweden now practices e-prescription and patient empowerment, both of which has reduced the patient healing time, reduced costs and enhanced efficiency. To implement such as strategy, training and support is essential to promote user engagement and user involvement during the system design stage. Shared vision is essential before any strategy can be implemente d. Transformational leadership is essential to challenge the existing assumptions. The study concludes that the situation in Saudi Arabia, though grim, is not insurmountable. Recommendations for an effective HIT strategy based on the findings of the study have been made. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction page 1.1 Chapter Overview 1 1.2 Background 1 1.3 Rationale for Research 3 1.4 Research Aims & Objectives 4 1.5 Scope of the Study 5 1.6 Structure of the Study 5 Chapter 2. Background and Literature Review 2.1 Health-care background in Saudi Arabia 7 2.2 Health Information Technology 9 2.3 Barriers and Challenges in health-care standards 11 2.4 Background of health-care providers 15 2.5 Barriers to implementation of ICT in healthcare 18 2.6 Factors that influence healthcare technologies 20 2.7 Organizational Issues in adoption and implementation of IT innovation 21 2.8 Chapter Summary 23 Chapter 3. Methodology 3.1 Research Philosophy 24 3.2 Research Phenomenon 24 3.3 Research Design 25 3.4 Research Approach 27 3.5 Case Study Method – justification 27 3.6 Data Collection – justification for secondary research 29 3.7 Data Sources 29 3.8 Data Analysis 26 3.9 Reliability & Validity 30 3.10 Ethical Concerns 31 Chapter 4. Findings & Discussion 4.1 E-Health strategy and model from Sweden 32 4.2 Healthcare system in the United States 38 4.3 Data Analysis 43 4.4 Health-care success factors 44 4.5