Factors Affecting the Adoption of EHRs by Primary Healthcare Physicians in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: An Integrated Theoretical Framework

Implementing Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in primary healthcare has the potential to improve the population health, and to enhance the overall healthcare system of the country. Current policy initiatives in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) are attempting major reforms in primary care with EHRs as a key component. Understanding human factors involved in the implementation process of technology is crucial for its successful implementation. The aim of this paper is to support current policy initiatives by investigating and identifying factors that are likely to affect primary care physicians’ acceptance of EHRs. Factors were identified based on extensive literature reviews and empirical findings. Three main stages of literature review were conducted: (1) factors influencing user adoption of IT, (2) factors affecting physician adoption of EHR, and (3) findings of relevant studies pertaining EHR adoption by physicians in the KSA. As a result, we developed an integrated framework of eight factors that were proven to have a significant direct influence on physicians’ acceptance of EHRs: attitude, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, computer self-efficacy, perceived threat to physician autonomy, confidentiality concerns, and physician participation. The proposed framework will be of great potential to policy makers to make the transition to EHRs run smoothly.