SR 4 Billion for e Health Project

The Saudi Ministry of Health announced the allocation of SR 680 Million (around USD 180 Million) of this year's budget for the e Health Project. The Ministry of Finance supported the e Health project by allocating up to SR 4 Billion (around USD 1.1 Billion) over four years in order for the Ministry of Health to execute the project expected to save between 10-15% of the annual budget of the Ministry of Health.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health for Planning and Development, Dr. Obaid Suliman Alobaid, stated to Riyadh Newspaper on Saturday 2 February 2008 that the ministry started the first phase by computerizing the ministry's Directorates, Central Laboratories, Blood Banks, Colleges and Health Institutions and it is aiming at the second phase to complete computerizing 30 hospitals by the end of the year and 150 primary healthcare clinics in few months.

This financial support, Dr. Alobaid added, will enable the ministry to implement a totally integrated health information system costing around SR 300 Millions that includes an Electronic Medical Record, Pharmacy and Laboratory Information systems along with other systems that compose the Hospital Information System.

At the end of this project patient will be able to process their appointments online as well renewing medication prescriptions. The project will facilitate monitoring the performance of physicians and audit the number of patients, operations and medications per physicians. This is a leap step for the ministry in terms of quality of services the ministry provides through its various health facilities by using modern e Health, the undersecretary stated.

The e Health project aspires upon completion to make available an electronic health card that includes all data relevant to the patient so it can be used in all healthcare facilities whether they are part of the ministry of health or other healthcare providers so that the healthcare professional can retrieve information about radiology and laboratory orders and results to which the physicians can add the new information.

Having a unified Electronic Medical Record is expected to lower the burden of healthcare service provision by avoiding the waste of resources and variation of information between hospitals. The electronic health card is a project supported by the Council of Health Services in the Kingdom to be adopted in governmental and private healthcare institutions.

The ministry conducted a study to assess the benefits of the e Health project, especially the financial aspect, the undersecretary declares, and the predictable saving of the health budget is 10 – 15% annually. In addition, the electronic health card will smooth the progress of cooperative health insurance.

alriyadh Newspaper