STRATEGIC INTERVENTIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF REFORMS IN THE PUBLIC HEALTH FACILITIES IN EMBU COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Implementation of reforms is one of the challenging issues among public organizations and more specifically in Public Health facilities in Kenya. Despite efforts from the National and County Governments, Public Health facilities in Embu County have continued to experience a number of challenges that range from periodical employee strikes and unsatisfactory health care services to the general public. The general objective this study was to establish influence of strategic interventions on implementation of reforms in Public Health Facilities in Embu County. The specific objectives of this study were to; establish the influence of strategic leadership, employee training, resource capability and system automation on implementation of reforms in Public Health Facilities in Embu County. The study adopted a descriptive and cross-sectional research design to establish the problem that was under investigation. This study adopted a census approach and targeted 228 respondents drawn from 77 public health facilities in Embu County. The sample size was 189 employees. The study used primary data. Primary data was collected using questionnaires. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics such as multiple regression analysis method were. The analyzed data was presented using descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviation, percentages and frequency tables. The significance values of the four variables of the study were less than the critical value of 0.05, which indicates that there is a significant statistical relationship between strategic leadership, employee training, resource capability and system automation and implementation of reforms in the public health facilities in Embu County. It was concluded that unless public health facilities adopt strategic interventions to gain competitiveness in the changing business environment will be difficult. The study recommended that the National Government in collaboration with County Governments in Kenya should formulate policies that will facilitate reform implementation. Therefore, this study recommends that other studies should be conducted to address other issues that may contribute to implementation of reforms in Public Health Facilities to achieve vision 2030 goals and benchmark the results of this study by conducting comparative studies.