Electronic ISSN 2287-0237

VOLUME

POTENTIAL FACTORS OF MEDICAL SPECIALIST ALLOCATION IN A PRIVATE HOSPITAL NETWORK IN THAILAND: A MODIFIED DELPHI STUDY

SEPTEMBER 2019 - VOL.15 | ORIGINAL ARTICLE
OBJECTIVES

Medical specialist allocation is crucial for achieving equitable accessto specialized care. Given the scarcity of data from the private sector, this study aimed toidentify potential factors of medical specialist allocation within the largest privatehospital network in Thailand.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

For standardization and comparison, based on theidentified key point, the modified four-round Delphi study together with expertinterviews from both public and private sectors were used. A total of 43 top executivesfrom 32 hospital representatives of the Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BDMS)participated by responding to a 5-point Likert scale for ranking the item that couldinfluence the allocation of medical specialists. The items with interquartile range (IQR)of < 1.5 and mean values > 4 were considered as potential factors.

RESULT

Thirty-five out of 46 factors were statistically significant and were identified aspotential factors of medical specialist allocation. Of the 35 factors, 6 potential factors wereconsidered as the most affected potential factors of medical specialist allocation: 1) healthneed of the population, 2) organization’s mission, 3) organization’s Hoshin, 4) organization’sstrategy, 5) complexity of the patients, and 6) severity of the patients.

CONCLUSION

Six factors that might influence the allocation of medical specialistswere identified and could be useful for medical allocation in a private hospital network.

Keywords

potential factor, medical specialist, allocation, private hospital, modifiedDelphi study

Received: November 15, 2018
Revision received: November 23, 2018
Accepted after revision: July 23, 2019
BKK Med J 2019;15(2): 198-202.
DOI: 10.31524/bkkmedj.2019.09.013

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