TITLE:
Computing Capabilities of Knowledge Workers in the Kuwaiti Health Sector
AUTHORS:
Sajjad ur Rehman, Abdus Sattar Chaudhry
KEYWORDS:
ICT Skills, Health Workers, Healthcare, Kuwait, Hospitals, Health Information System
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.4 No.5,
May
3,
2017
ABSTRACT: Knowledge workers in health care can function well
in their clinical and professional practice if they have adequate computing
capabilities and they apply them optimally in their work setting. Health
information systems (HIS), patient health records (PHR), health databases,
health portals, etc. are becoming the essential work-context for these
knowledge workers. These professionals have to be equipped with relevant IT
competencies in order to be usefully functional, productive and value-driven.
HIS was implemented in 2006 in one of the major public hospitals in Kuwait.
Thus far the system is partially functional and many of its strengths are not
adequately exploited. The Purpose of this study was to examine whether health
professionals possess needed
computing capabilities and what role did these play in the optimization of the
HIS. We conducted a survey administering a questionnaire to a stratified random
sample of 210 knowledge workers. We received 130 responses and analyzed data using 124 of the usable
responses. In this paper we have reviewed perceptions about the computing
capabilities of these professionals, inadequacies they had reported, problems
they had encountered, and the role of IT unit in the organization.