Abdelkaream Jabali

Medication errors involving intravenous (IV) therapy remain a major patient safety challenge. Evaluating the usability and safety of Medical Infusion Pumps (MIPs) is critical to identifying risk sources and improving clinical practice. This study aims to characterize the types, frequencies, and severities of MIP-related medication errors in Saudi Arabia and to identify statistically significant factors associated with these errors. A cross-sectional survey was administered to 387 healthcare providers across multiple hospitals. Participants rated the frequency and impact of 26 MIP problems across five domains. Statistical analyses included ANOVA and effect size calculations. Significant differences were found across job roles for nearly all problem classes (p < 0.05). Less experienced users reported significantly higher frequencies of Human Factors issues (p = 0.024). Specialty pumps demonstrated significantly higher User Interface problem frequencies compared with traditional pumps (p = 0.046). Pump connectivity to Hospital Information Systems (HIS) was also significantly associated with higher perceived problem frequencies across all domains (p < 0.05). The findings highlight critical usability concerns—particularly related to UI design, human factors, and system integration—that significantly impact MIP safety. Targeted training for less experienced users and user-centered design improvements are essential to reducing medication errors.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Despite the innovative technology availability, however, the functionalities of usefulness are limited and not been explored in Saudi Arabian hospitals. This study aims to determine the extent and diffusion of Electronic Health Records (EHR) in public hospitals in Saudi Arabia and to explore the main obstacles, and problems of adopting EHR in these hospitals.METHODS: A comprehensive survey was developed and sent to the medium and large size hospital stakeholders to collect their opinions on the current status of the adoption and usage of EHR. Cluster random sampling has been used. The study has been conducted in the eastern province.RESULTS: Based on the 15 hospitals surveyed in the Eastern Province (EP), Saudi Arabia, a total of seven hospitals (46.6%) had an EHR system and the implementation is running. EHR is mostly used for order entry (51.11%) and char review (41.11%) in the EP in Saudi Arabia with obstacles to be used for decision support, documentation functions, communication tools. Despite the “secured” EHR system, the results shows that security mechanism did not cover all threats.CONCLUSION: The results suggest that more public hospitals are required to adopting more and more EHR and EHR functionalities. A periodic assessment of EHR status should be performed in addition to or part of an encouraging/ enforcing policies that can significantly increase the rate of adoption of EHR systems. Managers and policymakers can benefit from the study by facing obstacles and general challenges of problems like resistance to change from the medical staff in using the information technology, low and weak financing, and train technical supporting staff for adopting EHR.

In general, the difference in the level of adoption, implementation, and use of technology between government and private sectors is common knowledge. The concern of this article is assessing the level and extent of usage of Electronic Health Records (EHR) in private sector hospitals in the EP of Saudi Arabia. The number of hospitals with EHR is increasing year by year and more functionality is observed in their use. The problems faced in accelerating the process of EHR adoption are likely to be the same as those in other countries including physicians’ resistance, lack of technical support, and others. To contribute toward the improvement of the uptake of EHR, there is more need for a systematic macro or national approach to encourage or push the hospitals to adopt such technology. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine (1) the extent and diffusion of EHR in private sector hospitals in the eastern province and (2) to explore the main features of adopting EHR and more specifically the obstacles, and problems in this regard. Methods: A comprehensive survey was developed and sent to hospital stakeholders to collect their opinions on the current status of the adoption and usage of EHR. Results: The private hospitals are faster in adopting and using EHR, compared to our previous study on public hospitals of the region. Conclusions: The results suggest that private hospitals are more flexible in adopting and running the EHR. A periodic assessment of EHR status should be performed as an encouraging/ enforcing policies can significantly increase the rate of adoption of EHR systems.