Influence of facility improvement funds on development of amenity wings in public level IV hospitals in Kisii County

Abstract

This study sought to examine the influence of facility improvement funds on the development of amenity wings in public level IV hospitals in Kisii County. Studies have shown that the number of people seeking services in public hospitals can be increased significantly if the physical infrastructure is well developed. The objectives that aided this study were, to establish the influences of: level of funding, time of funds disbursement, facility income generating potential and health stakeholder participation on physical infrastructure development. The study evaluated four hypotheses which were: HOl:There is no significant relationship between the level of funding and development of amenity wings in public level IV hospitals in Kisii County;H02: There is no significant relationship between the time of facility improvement funds disbursement and development of amenity wings in public level IV hospitals in Kisii County;H03: There is no significant relationship between facility income generating potential and development of amenity wings in public level IV hospitals in Kisii County.Hoa: There is no relationship between health sector stakeholders' participation and development of amenity wings in public level IV hospitals in Kisii County.

The significance of this study is that it may help public hospitals, health stakeholders and the ministry of health to plan for infrastructure development. The main themes in chapter two were: facility improvement funds, level of funding, time of funds disbursement, facility income generating potential and health stakeholder participation. The study adopted descriptive survey design where qualitative and quantitative data was collected. The study population was 52 which consisted of 13 medical superintendents, 13 health records information officers, 13 public health officers and 13 health administrative officers. The entire population was sampled using the census survey method. Data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences v16 (SPSS) and Chi Square was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study indicated that facility improvement funds (FIF) could be used in development of amenity wings in public hospitals. To do this, FIF incomes need to be boosted where possible.

The study therefore advocates for harnessing stakeholder resources in order to augment incomes from FIF so as to make amenity wing development fully feasible in the short term. The study contributed to the body of Knowledge by linking FIF to hospital infrastructure development with special focus on amenity wings. The study recommends that public hospitals should reduce reliance on treasury by coming up with cost cutting innovations as well as reducing loss of income in key service delivery points. Further research cari be carried out to establish the attitudes of healthcare workers on the patients they serve and a comparative study may be conducted to investigate whether actual FIF income generated has been used for other infrastructure development projects in public level IV hospitals in Kisii County for the last five years.