STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING IN HEALTH DATA EXCHANGE FOR CLINICAL SERVICE OF THAI POPULATION

Abstract

The purposes of this mixed methods research were 1) to investigate the health data exchange for clinical services of Thai population of the private and governmental hospitals and 2) to examine the strategic decisions of the health data exchange for clinical services of Thai population of the private and governmental hospitals. Simple random sampling was employed to obtain 176 subjects for quantitative research and purposive selection was employed to obtain 6 key informants for qualitative research. The questionnaire was used for quantitative data. The index of item objectivity was 1.0 and the reliability coefficient was .97. The semi-structure interview questionnaire was used for qualitative data. The descriptive statistics in terms of frequency and percentage were employed for quantitative data and content analysis was used for qualitative data.

Results from this study were summarized into 2 important groups of findings as follows:

1. The important minimal data sets of the health data exchange for clinical services of Thai population of the private and governmental hospitals contained drug allergy history, medical treatment history, diagnoses, electrocardiogram results, and laboratory results. The health data of the clients are brought automatically into the database (opt-in). The number of Identification card was used for health data approach. Only doctors could read and record data of the clients. Health data exchange governance was federal agencies. The laws about health data were enough but they had to be reviewed and updated.
2. There were two levels of the strategic decisions of the health data exchange for clinical services of Thai population of the private and governmental hospitals. The one was the policy level. The details were about the secret of data and the data consent. The other was the operating level which was divided into the profession aspect and the technical aspect. The secret and security of data had to be improved. The data connection was limited. It had to be further developed.