Healthcare System of Saudi Arabia and Lebanon-Free-Samples

Question: Choose a country to compare with Saudi Arabia in terms of governance, population access, and availability of technology and electronic health records. Answer: The national healthcare system in Saudi Arabia is responsible for providing healthcare services through several government agencies. On the other hand, healthcare facilities are predominantly present in the urban localities of Lebanon and the private medical centers provide highest levels of service. Governance Saudi Arabia has a monarch government with some basic laws. However, there are no unions, political parties, or any political associations. The Basic Law of Governance encompasses 83 articles that are based on the Sharia laws (Alsenaidy Ahmad, 2012). The political system of Lebanon is based on principles of balance, separation and cooperation. The president is considered as the head of the state and is selected for a term of 6 years. The president must always be a Maronite Christian, according to the Taif Agreement (Salamey, 2013). Population access Primary healthcare services are provided by the Ministry of Health, through a network of healthcare centers. It finances, operates, and supervises the public health sector. People have access to public health services and cooperative health insurances that covers all health costs (Alkabba et al., 2012). Most people in Lebanon struggle to access healthcare services despite the government making attempts to regulate health related expenses (Chen Cammett, 2012). High price costs, lack of insurance coverages, inadequate medical supplies and an increase in number of Syrian refugees create problems in accessing these services (El-Khatib et al., 2013). Availability of technology Healthcare technologies in Saudi Arabia include the presence of remote patient monitoring services, extensive training and education services for nurses, physicians and staff (Almalki, FitzGerald Clark, 2012). A health technology national policy also supports the use of advanced equipments. There are no existing policies in Lebanon, for promoting the use of health technology. However, Beirut has become one of the most updated cities to contain advanced diagnostic technologies. There are more than 6.25 MRI machines and 15 CT machines, per million populations (Harfouche Robbin, 2012). Electronic health records There has been an increase in use of EHR in recent years, in Saudi Arabia. Although, the doctors are aware its benefits over paper-based records, lack of computer literacy skills, and low English language proficiency are major challenges to its implementation (Khalifa, 2013). In Lebanon there are no provisions for legal frameworks that would govern sharing of digital patient information through EHR. Although, the private healthcare centers have provisions for the use of EHR, lack of adequate funding creates barriers in its implementation El-(Khatib et al., 2013). Thus, the relative strengths of the KSA healthcare system lie in the finance, operations, supervision and management of the public healthcare sectors by the MOH. This helps in meeting the healthcare needs of the people. The KSA government provides autonomy to the regional directorates for planning and recruiting staff and also formulates several healthcare agreements (Bahnassy et al., 2016). Further strengths are related to improvement of public hospital management, presence of adequate healthcare funds and implementation of cooperative health insurance schemes (Alkhamis, Hassan Cosgrove, 2014). Privatization of public hospitals also helps in attracting more patients. However, presence of inequity in access to healthcare service across rural regions and underutilization of EHR are major drawbacks that exist in its healthcare system (Aldosari, 2014). To conclude, there are disparities in the healthcare system between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. The healthcare system of Lebanon can learn the techniques of implementation of healthcare funding, training of nurses and EHR implementation from KSA. On the other hand, KSA can adopt the strategy of implementing advanced diagnostic technologies from Lebanon References Aldosari, B. (2014). Rates, levels, and determinants of electronic health record system adoption: A study of hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.International journal of medical informatics,83(5), 330-342. Alkabba, A. F., Hussein, G. M., Albar, A. A., Bahnassy, A. A., Qadi, M. (2012). The major medical ethical challenges facing the public and healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia.Journal of Family and Community Medicine,19(1), 1. 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