Structure and Roles of Community Hospital Administration Board, Angthong Province

Abstract

The purposes of this descriptive study were to: (1) study the actual and expected structures and roles of community hospital executive boards as well as their advantages and disadvantages and (2) compare the actual and expected roles of community hospital executive boards in Ang Thong province. The study was conducted among all 95 executives of community hospitals in Ang Thong province. Data were collected by interviewing and using a questionnaire with the reliability of 0.96. Frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, paired t-test, and content analysis were determined or conducted in data analysis.

The results showed that: (1) In actuality, each of the community hospital executive boards was composed of 7 - 15 members with different compositions, but basically including key executives, i.e. the hospital director, head of general administration, head of nursing, chief of dental service, and chief of pharmacy, while the other members were appointed ex officio according the administrative structure of the hospital without any specified term of membership. The overall performance of the board in all aspects was at a moderate level. The advantages of the actual structures and roles were the boards’ memberships comprising all professions, their clear goals, directions and scopes of work; while the disadvantages were the unstipulated term of board membership and their numerous duties. Regarding the expected structures, each community hospital executive board should have 7 - 25 members, comprising the hospital director, head of general administration, head of nursing, chief of dental service, and chief of pharmacy, as well as other appointed members according to the hospital’s administrative structure, with a specified term of four years; and their roles were at the highest level. The advantages of the expected structures and roles were the executive boards’ coverage of all professions and their clear goals, while their disadvantages were the boards’ large membership that might result in the lack of flexibility especially in attaining full meeting attendance due to each member’s high workload. (2) The roles of the actual and expected community hospital executive boards in Ang Thong province, overall and by each aspect, were significantly different at the 0.05 level, which their expected roles were higher than their actual roles.