Factors Influencing on the Sustainability of Intermediate Care Policy in Ministry of Public Health Hospitals

Abstract

This cross-sectional survey research aimed to evaluate the implementation of intermediate care according to the Ministry of Public Health’s policy and analyze factors influencing sustainability of intermediate care. Stratified multi-stage cluster sampling was adopted to recruit one thousand and eight intermediate care professional providers from seventeen healthcare facilities in four regions. Data were analyzed with inferential statistics (one way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and stepwise multiple regression). It was found that there were responses from one thousand and eight questionnaires; and the mean score for intermediate care service was at good level (Mean=3.61, SD=0.47). By Pearson’s correlation, the highest correlation was found between policy appropriateness and policy adoption (r=0.73, p<0.05), followed by policy acceptance and policy adoption (r=0.67, p<0.05). The sustainability of intermediate care was positively correlated with all dimensions of policy process and experience of provider in intermediate care provision, where highest correlation was found with policy penetration (r=0.57, p<0.05). The stepwise multiple regression analysis found significant influencing effects of policy penetration (B=0.389, p<0.05), policy fidelity (B=0.145, p<0.05), and policy acceptance (B=0.124, p<0.05) on policy sustainability (R2 =0.369, Adj. R2 =0.367, p<0.05).