Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Bahraini individuals accept e-health system and the prominent factors affecting e-health system adoption in Bahrain. Design/methodology/approach The authors adopted a quantitative and qualitative approach, i.e., a self-administered questionnaire, unstructured and a semi-structured interview, which were used to collect the data. A questionnaire was distributed to Bahraini residents selected randomly. The framework was based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and theory of reasoned action (TRA). Important variables from both the TAM model and TRA theory were extracted and jointly used to build the research model. Findings The findings indicated that the most factors affecting e-health adoption are trust, health literacy and attitude. Additionally, people in the private and government sectors understand e-health benefits. Practical implications If healthcare professionals understand the factors affecting e-health system adoption from an individual and organisational perspective, then nurses, pharmacists and others will be more conscious about e-health and its adoption status. Originality/value E-health system adoption has become increasingly important to governments, individuals, and researchers in recent years. A novel research framework, based on TAM and TRA, was used to produce a new integrated model.