Policy Making in Health-care Management: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

Kerala has become a success and a model for the country, especially in increasing life expectancy as well as reducing infant and maternal mortalities. However, there exists a wide disparity in health-care spending in the country. This disparity can be mainly attributed to the social, political, and economic circumstances prevailing in the states of India. The contribution of Missionary hospitals in addressing this equity gap is noteworthy. An organized movement in health-care sector was initiated by the missionary churches by establishing a variety of health-care formats in Kerala. Among the various stakeholders, the policymakers and leaders have a very relevant and challenging responsibility in envisioning and innovating policies, strategies, and finding creative ways of management and sustainability. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study, done among the missionary hospitals under Catholic Church in Kerala which are registered under CHAI Kerala. The study is limited to ten hospitals from five zones. The data are collected through questionnaire from fifty policymakers of ten hospitals spread all over the State of Kerala. The study shows that there is a significant difference in the satisfaction of policymakers with the health-care management based on their age and association with the institution. There is difference in the leadership quality exhibited by policymakers based on gender. Moreover, there is a significant difference in service quality based on their tenure of association with the institution. Along with sociodemographics, policies, and regulations, social responsibilities were the other factors found as major challenges in health-care management for the policymakers.