In conversation with PreSales – Product Specialist at a leading Healthcare IT company in KSA, we made an attempt to understand the Healthcare IT Systems Market in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
1. Please brief us about the Healthcare IT Solutions market in KSA.
A hospital information system is the information management system that is used in hospitals. Hospitals continuously generate huge amount of data which needs to be managed to ensure efficient functioning. Spending on the health IT sector is expected to maintain growth, especially due to the government’s resolve to finalize various projects including the standard e-Health card, patient digital records, doctors’ prescriptions, and insurance claims.
2. What are the major challenges it the Healthcare IT systems market of Saudi Arabia?
Mentality. The market of Healthcare IT in KSA is different from all the other Healthcare IT markets in gulf region. Most of the businesses here are owned by families and when it comes to buying software the decision largely depends on the recommendations from the family members who already own a clinic/hospital and use IT systems. The decision depends more on recommendations and relations rather than pricing and the software feature.
3. What are the major factors fueling the growth of the Healthcare IT systems market of KSA?
There are about 1500-1600 solutions available in the market of KSA but the government has approved just 16 for integration with NAPHIES. So, there is a big potential.
4. What percentage of hospitals, clinics & pharmacies in Saudi Arabia opt for IT Solutions?
All the hospitals, pharmacies and clinics use the IT system. 100%. The pharmacies use RCM.
As per the guidelines by Council of Cooperative Health Insurance the hospitals, clinics & pharmacies must have an IT solution, it is mandatory now.
5. Do hospitals and clinics go for subscription-based pricing or prefer to pay for one time license?
Most of the companies offer both type of pricing models. But what the end user will select depends on various factors. If they opt for solutions that are highly priced, they opt for subscription-based pricing. But on an average, it is almost 50-50.
6. Do you provide both customized and non-customized solutions? Do you make changes in the software as per the unique requirements of the clinics or hospitals?
No, we do not make special changes in the software as per customer requirement but, we have several options in the software itself so that the end user can themselves customize it based on their need. End user can remove or add some sections as per their needs.
7. What is the average annual spent by hospitals and clinics on the IT systems?
There is no fixed price here in Saudi Arabia. Some companies price the software according to the number of users and for some companies the prices are highly negotiable as per the meetings with the hospitals and clinics. The cost of software begins from as low as 25,000 riyals a month and go up to 10,00,000 riyals.
8. What are the annual maintenance charges?
It’s about 15-20% of the software cost.
9. Are the IT systems cloud based?
Most of the systems by us are cloud-based. Not 100% but most.
10. What is the minimum commitment level?
No minimum commitment levels.
11. How do you predict the market to grow in the next 5 years?
The future seems promising. The Government of Saudi Arabia seeks to expand the private sector’s role in providing healthcare services under Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program. Some goals include to incorporate health IT and digital records. For 2022-23-24 the market can be expected to grow at 10-12% and later at 7-8%.