Study on loss rate of epidemiological staff of Surveilance and Rapid Response Team

Abstract

The objective of this study were to determine loss rate and causes of resignation from the epidemiological Surveillance and Rapid Response Team (SRRT) among 237 health personnel in Chiang Rai, Saraburi, Khon Kaen and Phatthalung provinces during 2005-2012. The participants were 23-56 years old with a median of 40.5 years. Their work commonly followed the SRRT standards and indicators set by the Bureau of Epidemiology, Ministry of Public Health. There were differences in support for SRRT work according to the administrators of provincial and district health offices. The yearly resignation from SRRT work (loss rate) among the study personnel during 2006-2012 ranged 5.1-10.5 % with a mean of 7.4 %. The highest rate of resignation was in Phatthalung province (10.3 %), followed by Saraburi (7.1 %) and Chiang Rai (5.9 %). The causes of resignation were transferring to work in another department of the same office (54.0 %), move to work in the sub-district health promoting hospital (15.9 %), and was promoted to a higher career level (12.7 %). Problems for epidemiological work in SRRT were related to the nature of the work which is urgent and risk taking activities, and the difficulty of the work which involve many persons and organizations. It is important to adequately support epidemiological and disease control activities. Maintenance experience epidemiological staff should be ealtincluded in the hospital accreditations process.