Expectations of the Clients and Family Care Teams toward the Services of Primary Care Cluster in Chiangmai province

Abstract

This descriptive study aimed to survey expectations of the clients and the family care teams (FCTs) toward the primary medical and primary health care services of primary care clusters (PCCs). There were two groups of samples. The group 1 were 400 clients of the PCCs; and the second group were 108 health service providers in the FCTs of the PCCs. Both groups were selected by convenience sampling. Data were collected from October to November 2018 using 2 different sets of expectation assessment forms for voluntary response. Data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. The results showed that 51.50% of the clients were male. Most of them were between 40-49 years old (32.50%), elementary education level (58.00%), agriculture career (59.80%), no medical conditions (72.20%) and used universal health coverage service (68.50%). The health facilities they often visited were primary public health center (34.25%), and PCCs were needed (97.50%). The clients had a highest level of expectations toward all aspects of the PCCs’ services (Mean=3.84, SD=0.39). Their expectations included the linkage of online medical data system between the major hospitals and the PCCs, obtaining diagnosis and treatment by doctor on every visit, the PCCs worked in collaboration with the municipality to manage the environment in support for good health, the medications dispensed by pharmacists and the PCCs’ settings that were up to standard, clean, sterile, good condition, convenient toilets and parking. For the FCT group, 72.20% were female. They were public health technical officers (27.78%), professional nurses (22.22%) and PCCs were needed (98.15%). They had high expectations toward all aspects of the PCCs’ service (Mean=3.45, SD=0.66), which included the clean structure of the PCCs that was sterile and passed 5-star health promoting hospital standard, multidisciplinary teams available to provide services in PCCs, a rapid technology channel providing counseling and knowledge to people. The expectations of clients toward the service of primary care cluster were obtaining diagnosis and treatment by family doctors, available multidisciplinary teams that provided other medical services in PCCs, linkage of online medical data system with the major hospitals, collaborated with local municipalities to facilitate well-being of the people, and development of PCCs’ structure to archive clean and standard. For the FCTs, there should be multidisciplinary teams to support and cooperate for systemic development of health promoting hospitals to reach 5-star standards, established a rapid technology channel provided counseling and knowledge to people using technology in order to provide and receive primary health care service that people trust and lead to happy workplaces.