Health System Influence On Functionality of Managers in Public Hospitals: A Case of Sub County Hospitals in Bungoma County

Abstract

Managers tasked with leading and managing the hospitals in the developing economies often have little formal preparation and face challenges in execution of their mandates. This study therefore interrogated the influence of management knowledge, organization capacity building systems, internal work environment and hospital finance on the functionality of managers in public Sub County hospitals in Kenya focusing on Bungoma County. A descriptive approach was adopted and 170 managers from the 10 Public Sub County hospitals in Bungoma County were targeted. A structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data which was analysed through SPSS version 24 to give descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of the study indicated that management knowledge of a manager had a positive and significant influence on manager’s functionality to manage Sub-County Hospitals (β = 0.263; P-value <0.05); organization capacity building systems had a positive and significant influence on management of Public Hospitals (β = 0.327; P-value < 0.05); internal work environment had a positive and significant influence on management of Public Hospitals (β = 0.360; P-value < 0.05) and health finance equally had a positive and significant influence on management of Public Hospitals, this influence was not significant (β = 0.112; P-value < 0.05). This implies that a unit increase in these factors would lead to a significant increase in management of the Sub-County hospitals. Based on these, the study recommended the county government of Bungoma County to set aside a budget to recruit health workers to address HRH gaps. The county government to enhance their financial commitment towards the running of the public hospitals in the county. The County to increase proportion of their exchequer to the public hospital the current proportion is not adequate. County top leaders to revise the finance accountability frameworks for efficient funds utilization. Furthermore, the local political leaders should collectively rework their conflict resolution mechanisms with the management of the hospitals and look for alternatives problem solving mechanism to reduce interference with the normal operation of hospitals.