Development of criteria for determining levels of difficulty in health service provision in Tak province, fiscal year 2020

Abstract

            This study aimed to develop guidelines for classifying health service centers by level of difficulty in provision of health services in Tak province, fiscal year 2020 and would be used for career reward and promotion. The methods had 4 steps including 1) reviewing the existing national and international guidelines, 2) making participation indicators, 3) developing the guidelines, and 4) applying the guidelines for classifying the health service centers in Tak province.

            The criteria for guideline development were difficulty in travel, shortage of health personnel, number of public and private health care centers in the area, number of the elderly, limitation of public utilities, and workload. There were 5 levels of difficulty in health service provision, from the lowest to the highest. The agreement of executive administrators’ perspective with the survey results using these guidelines in Tak province showed 99.1% for health promoting hospitals, 44.4% for hospitals, and 77.8% for district health offices. Of the 115 health promoting hospitals, 33.9% were in the lowest level, 25.2% were low, 24.3% were medium, 12.2% were high, and 4.4% were in the highest level. Of the 9 hospitals, one was in the highest level and 2 for each of the remaining levels. Of the 9 district health offices, one was found in the lowest level and 2 for each of the remaining levels.

            These classification guidelines using levels of difficulty in provision of health services may be useful in areas with a wide variety of difficulties and should be evaluated for further improvement.