Abstract
There are clear reasons for introducing computerization and automation into hospital pharmacies, laboratories and other services: (1) workload is increasing disproportionately to budget, (2) to perform cumbersome, time consuming labor-intensive tasks, (3) to speed up the delivery of drugs and test results, (4) to facilitate centralization, (5) to overcome difficulties with technical recruitment. Guest workers represent 24% in Saudi Arabia and 60% in Kuwait, (6) provide immediate data for quality control and monitoring of service quality. All major Public Health laboratories in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are equipped with modern automated systems. The use of computers in the running of support services such as central supply medical records, etc. has demonstrated its efficiency and impact on productivity. In recent years there has been steady growth in pharmacy computerization, for example, 700 computerized pharmacies in Sweden and more than 60,000 in the USA. Some Saudi University and Military Hospitals are fully computerized. This paper discusses the Saudi and Kuwait growing trend towards computerizing clinical support services such as medical records, radiology, laboratory and pharmacy, which has some specific constrains because of the nature of health provision and the status of health service in these two countries.