The Factors Affecting Physicians’ Employee Engagement of Private Hospitals in the Northeastern Region, Thailand

Abstract

The objective of this research was to study the level of physicians engagement in private hospitals and to analyze the factors which correlated with organizational commitment of physicians in private hospitals. Mixed Methods Research was used to collect data in this study. Data was collected by interviewing a sample group of 10 doctors in an administration level who are working in hospitals and questionnaires were used to collect data from 155 doctors.  The data from the questionnaires were analyzed by using a basic statistics for comparison of organizational commitment of physicians by using t-test and f-test. The test also used to analyze factors affecting organizational commitment of physicians in private hospitals by Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The research found that private hospitals in the Northeast region have age older than 20 years old. The organization administrative structures are composed of directors, deputy directors, and department heads. There are medical equipment which only served for basic patient care. In case of physicians, there are more part-time physicians than full-time physicians. The physicians engagement to private hospitals in term of fully utilizing their knowledges and abilities are at the highest level. The level of commitment of physicians to private hospitals in term of attitudes was at a high level as well. An analysis of factors related to physician engagement to private hospitals are consisted of 3 aspects as followed; 1) Job characteristics 2) Organization characteristics 3) Workplace satisfaction such as recognition. The study revealed that all three aspects were significantly related to the organizational engagement of physicians in the private hospitals. The results for all three means were significant with p<0.01. There are 15 factors used in this study which are significantly related to organizational engagement. There are 3 factors which show higher correlation; 1) medical equipment 2) job opportunity 3) hospital location. The organization engagement of the physicians is that the hospital should have a policy to invest more into this topic such as invest in sending doctors for continuing education and training in a special field. The hospital should be equipped with advanced and modern medical equipment. The organization should have a plan and career path for their physicians.