FOR MILITARY HOSPITALS IN KSA

The development of e-health initiatives within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has prompted many military hospitals to create a strategic plan towards its effective implementation by 2010 under the guidance of the Armed Forces Medical Services Division (AFMSD). Two of its crucial goals are to determine the public’s perception on the proposed e-health services and to assess the influence of demographic characteristics. Hence, a preliminary survey was conducted wherein 100 questionnaires were distributed randomly to respondents at King Fahd Military Medical Complex (KFMMC), Dhahran, KSA; only 62 participated. Results revealed that majority of the respondents would like to get an access to various e-health services. Correspondingly, gender, stakeholder groups, computer proficiency, educational attainment, and adult age groups do not generally influence favorability except on certain services. These findings indicate the overwhelming optimism of the public to experience e-health services despite the apparent digital divide, suggesting the lack of authentic knowledge on the nature of e-health and e-government. Hence, these implications could be used by AFMSD for its e-government readiness (launching information literacy initiatives on e-health and other e-government activities) as the implementation phase approaches and as a pilot study for future large-scale surveys across various military hospitals in KSA