ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Family Medicine and Primary Care
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1502184
This article is part of the Research TopicDigital Health Innovations for Patient-Centered CareView all 23 articles
Exploring Electronic Health Record Systems Implementation in primary health care centres in Saudi Arabia: prepost implementation
Provisionally accepted
- Qassim University, Buraidah, Saudi Arabia
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The Saudi government has allocated four billion Saudi Riyals (approximately $1,066 million) to establish the National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) and advance its e-health strategy. Over seventy projects have been identified to achieve this vision. Following the failure of previous initiatives, the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Saudi Arabia is prioritizing the implementation of Electronic Health Record Systems (EHRS) in all Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs). This study evaluates the implementation of EHRS in PHCs at two phases: pre-implementation and postimplementation. Methods: A quantitative, self-reported questionnaire was employed at two distinct timescales (pre-and post-implementation) to assess user attitudes and experiences. The study population included all clinical and administrative staff working in Saudi PHCs (n=38,514). A multistage cluster sampling technique was used, resulting in data from total 834 participants in both pre and post implementation phases. Results: Participants demonstrated a high level of awareness regarding the perceived usefulness of EHRS during the pre-implementation phase. In the postimplementation phase, agreement towards EHRS usefulness increased, with 96.6% of participants endorsing the system's implementation. However, dissatisfaction emerged regarding training and technical support mechanisms. Negative attitudes were also expressed, particularly regarding the time required to assist less experienced users. Variability in user attitudes was observed across scales measuring perceived usefulness, training and support, and negative attitudes. These findings highlight evolving perceptions influenced by direct system use and organizational support. Conclusion: Enduser attitudes toward EHRS implementation vary over time and are influenced by system usability, organizational support, and the scale of the project. Addressing training deficiencies, improving technical support, and involving end-users in the implementation process are critical to fostering positive attitudes and ensuring successful EHRS adoption in PHCs.
Keywords: Electronic Health Records, Large-scale project, Primary healthcare centers, IT Project Management, User attitude, Saudi Arabia
Received: 26 Sep 2024; Accepted: 13 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alzghaibi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Haitham Alzghaibi, Qassim University, Buraidah, Saudi Arabia
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