Doctor Clerk Implementation in Rural Community Hospitals for Effective Task Shifting of Doctors: A Grounded Theory Approach

Ryuichi Ohta (), Miyuki Yawata and Chiaki Sano
Additional contact information
Ryuichi Ohta: Community Care, Unnan City Hospital, 96-1 Iida, Daito-cho, Unnan 699-1221, Japan
Miyuki Yawata: Community Care, Unnan City Hospital, 96-1 Iida, Daito-cho, Unnan 699-1221, Japan
Chiaki Sano: Department of Community Medicine Management, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, 89-1 Enya-cho, Izumo 693-8501, Japan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 16, 1-13

Abstract: With the diversification of medical care and work reform, doctor clerks play a major role today and are recruited to mitigate the burden of doctors worldwide. Their recruitment can improve the working conditions of physicians, facilitate task shifting in rural community hospitals, improve patient care, and help address the lack of healthcare resources. This study used a qualitative method to investigate difficulties in the implementation of doctor clerks and ascertain the features of effective implementation by collecting ethnographic data through field notes and semi-structured interviews with workers. We observed and interviewed 4 doctor clerks, 10 physicians, 14 nurses, 2 pharmacists, 1 nutritionist, and 2 therapists for our study. We clarified the doctor clerk process in rural hospitals through four themes: initial challenge, balance between education and expansion, vision for work progression, and drive for quality of care. We further clarified effectiveness, difficulties, and enhancing factors in implementation. Doctor clerk recruitment and bridging of discrepancies among medical professionals can mitigate professional workloads and improve staff motivation, leading to better interprofessional collaboration and patient care.

Keywords: doctor clerk; task shifting; rural hospital; family medicine; primary care physician (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/9944/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/9944/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:16:p:9944-:d:886317

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().