The Learning Organizational Management of District Hospitals for Service Quality

Abstract

           The district hospital, as a secondary healthcare setting, plays significant role in providing comprehensive medical care through effective referral system, but quality of service has not yet been achieved. The Thai government has mandated that the development of the district hospital as a learning organization is the crucial strategy in developing healthcare system. This exploratory descriptive research was designed to describe the learning organizational management phenomena in district hospitals. The researchers employed qualitative methods consisting of in - depth interviewing among 8 key informants. All of them were the head officers of district hospitals from various districts of 5 provinces in central part of Thailand. The data were collected during June to September B.E., 2555 by utilizing the interviewing guideline open - ended questions that was developed by the researchers. Content analysis was performed by integrating the data, in order to produce the summarized findings.

           The findings of this study  indicated that district hospitals were learning organization, which consisted of knowledge management strategies and personnel empowerment. The components of knowledge management process were knowledge creation and acquisition, leading to integrative learning among their network. They established knowledge management cycle through many methods of knowledge sharing and P-D-C-A cycle, such as dialogue, storytelling, after-action-review, and knowledge management forum. Finally, they derived at various learning products, such as best practice guidelines, work happiness, personnel and team mastery, resource sharing, and reforming of organizational culture based on horizontal management concept.

          Researchers suggested that knowledge management should be applied in other District hospitals. Moreover, the administrators should realize the importance of horizontal management, personnel development as well as best team work in order to achieve District Health System (DHS) goal.