Comparison of health professionals' attitudes towards integrated health campuses (city hospitals)

In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the attitudes of senior managers and specialist physicians working in city hospitals, towards city hospitals and to compare these evaluations according to occupational groups and specialties in terms of health care quality and efficiency, coordination of care components, interdisciplinary care teams and integration of health services. In this study face-to-face survey was conducted with 11 senior managers and 185 specialist physicians working at Elazig Fethi Sekin City Hospital. As a result of the analyses, it was seen that managers (100%) have more positive attitudes towards city hospitals compared with specialist physicians (84%), in terms of assessments whether city hospitals are suitable for the health sector. When the attitudes of the senior managers and specialist physicians towards city hospitals were examined, by means of four subdimensions of city hospitals such as; health care quality and efficiency, coordination of care components, interdisciplinary care teams and integration of health services; the highest average score obtained from coordination of care components (4.73±0.95). Statistically significant mean rank differences observed between senior managers and specialist physicians' attitudes in terms of subdimensions of interdisciplinary care teams such as; "developing an interdisciplinary patient care plan in city hospitals is excessively time consuming" (U=558; p<0.01). Statistically significant differences observed between the mean ranks of the specialist physicians attitudes in terms of general (X2=47.76; p<0.001) and all sub-dimensions (p<0.001) of city hospitals. Additionally, statistically significant relationships observed between all subdimensions of attitudes towards city hospitals, by means of managers and specialist physicians evaluations (p<0.01). Accordingly, there exists a very strong relationship between coordination of care and health care quality and efficiency (rs=0.81; p<0.01), there exists a strong relationship between coordination of care and interdisciplinary care teams (rs=0.72; p<0.01). Study findings highlights that attitudes and expectation differences of health professionals should be considered for effective management of city hospitals. Keywords: City Hospitals, Integrated Health Campuses, Health Professionals, Specialist Physician, Senior Manager