Developing Of Health Promotion Of District Hospitals In Thailand

The aim of this research is to investigate the health promotion services provided by district hospitals in the northeast of Thailand in order to improve health promotion guideline for district hospitals. The qualitative research was conducted from January 2009 to March 2010. Informants were the managers, the staff members responsible for developing and providing services of health promotion from 19 small, medium and large-sized district hospitals in the Northeastern region of Thailand. The in-depth interview was employed to gather the information analyzed by using content analysis. It was found that the new health promotion trends in district hospitals in the northeast were as follows. The organizational structures for promoting health were obviously defined while active services inside and outside the hospitals were clearly developed which bring health promotion practices to serviced users. Public policy for health was offered in the form of quality control, information management and active services while environmental management emphasized on creating comfort and learning environments for the hospital staff members and serviced users. Collaborations between professional organizations and multi-level networks had been established by district hospitals resulting in services with more accessibility and strengthening local communities. In addition, personal skill development and public health education yielded change to the health behaviors of hospital staff members, serviced users and people in local communities. For health service reorientation, there was emphasis on development of the quality of local community services in forms of professional standard development and assessment of health behavior outcome. The forms of health promotion provided by district hospitals in the northeast that were found were public policy for health promotion, active services, environmental management for health, community strengthening in form of collaboration networks, personal skill development and public health education for changing behavior, and change of health services. In order to improve health promotion, health promotion policies must be clearly defined and collaboration between stakeholders both inside and outside hospitals must be supported.