Essential Public Health Functions of Public Health Personnel in Subdistrict Health-promoting Hospitals, Thailand.

Abstract

In Thailand, public health service roles have been defined by the Ministry of Public Health, while essential public health functions (EPHFs) were not assigned as necessity health-care service activities responding to the missions of primary care units. The aims were to determine the EPHFs and compare the necessity of performance and the actual performance according to the EPHFs of public health personnel in the subdistrict health-promoting hospitals (SHPHs). The exploratory sequential design of mixed methods was employed. The first phase consisted of three methods: a focus group discussion, a nominal group technique, and a cross-sectional survey used to determine the EPHFs. The second phase was to compare the necessity of performance and the actual performance according to the EPHFs of the personnel using a cross-sectional survey. The 285 SHPH directors in the second health region as samples were selected by random clusters. The findings revealed that 14 EPHFs and the necessity of performance average were higher than the actual performance average in the 14 EPHFs and 212 indicators with significance at a level of 0.05. The means of health assessment and primary medical care (EPHF3) presented the smallest difference, whereas Thai traditional and alternative medicines (EPHF11) indicated the largest average difference. EPHFs would be applied for setting a framework of working scope as policies and EPHFs could be recommended for use as individual guidelines or organizational assessment manuals to develop organizations efficiently.