Saudi Arabia's Healthcare Reform Initiative: Evaluating the Wasfaty E-Prescribing Platform

Strategic Insights -

Saudi Arabia is undergoing a comprehensive reform of its healthcare system to improve the efficiency and accessibility of public healthcare services. A key aspect of this initiative is outsourcing outpatient pharmacy services to retail pharmacies through an electronic prescribing platform known as Wasfaty. However, a recent study highlighted the need for improvement in the platform's adherence to established best practices for Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE). The study, conducted by researchers from King Saud University, analyzed 1965 prescriptions filled in retail pharmacies for out-of-stock medications from May 2022 to December 2023. The results showed that only 19 (31.66%) of the 60 functional characteristics a CPOE platform should include were fully implemented, while 10 (16.66%) were partially implemented.

Key Takeaways:

  • The National Unified Procurement Company (NUPCO) manages the Wasfaty platform to ensure spending efficiency and patient accessibility to essential medications.
  • The study aimed to assess the level of adherence of Wasfaty to best practices for CPOE, using a list of 60 functional features.
  • The study found that 31.66% of the functional characteristics were fully implemented, and 16.66% were partially implemented.
  • The Wasfaty platform is deficient in several key functional features necessary for e-prescribing, including patient identification and data access, medication selection, alerts, and transparency and accountability.
  • The study concluded that improving the Wasfaty platform is essential to reduce the risk of adverse drug events.

Statistics:

  • 1965 prescriptions were filled in retail pharmacies for out-of-stock medications for 1367 patients from May 2022 to December 2023.
  • 44.10% of prescriptions were for gastroenterology, 18.14% for cardiology, 2.42% for anti-infectives, 8.85% for urology, and 3.6% for dermatology.
  • Only 19 (31.66%) of the 60 functional characteristics a CPOE platform should include were fully implemented.
  • 10 (16.66%) of the 60 functional characteristics were partially implemented.

Sources:

  • Evaluating the Wasfaty E-Prescribing Platform Against Best Practices for Computerized Provider Order Entry. Healthcare, 2025;13(8):946.
  • King Saud University, College of Pharmacy, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
  • Mdpi, St Alban-Anlage 66, Ch-4052 Basel, Switzerland.
  • Razan Alothman, Pharmacoeconomics Research Unit, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
  • Saba Alkathiri, Sondus Ata, and Yazed Alruthia, additional authors for the research.