Science Journal of Public Health 2016; 4(4): 284-288 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/sjph doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20160404.13 ISSN: 2328-7942 (Print); ISSN: 2328-7950 (Online)
Attitudes of Primary Health Care (PHC) Gatekeepers Towards Patient Referral Policy, Machakos County, Kenya Desire Aime Nshimirimana1, *, Wanja Mwaura-Tenambergen1, Donald Kokonya2, Maureen Adoyo1 1
Department of Health Systems Management, School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Kenya Methodist University, Nairobi, Kenya
2
Department of Mental Health, School of Medicine, Masinde Muliro University of Science & Technology, Kakamega, Kenya
Email address:
[email protected] (D. A. Nshimirimana),
[email protected] (W. Mwaura-Tenambergen),
[email protected] (D. Kokonya),
[email protected] (M. Adoyo) *
Corresponding author
To cite this article: Desire Aime Nshimirimana, WanjaMwaura-Tenambergen, Donald Kokonya, Maureen Adoyo. Attitudes of Primary Health Care (PHC) Gatekeepers Towards Patient Referral Policy, Machakos County, Kenya. Science Journal of Public Health. Vol. 4, No. 4, 2016, pp. 284-288. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20160404.13 Received: May 16, 2016; Accepted: May 28, 2016; Published: June 13, 2016
Abstract: Primary Health Care (PHC) serves as the foundation for building a working healthcare system that provide good health outcomes. The quality of PHC delivery and the decision to refer patients depends on some behavioural factors (knowledge, skills and behaviour) of primary care providers. The study was conducted at 100 PHC centres sampled using Taro Yamane formula, in Machakos County, Kenya, from March to May 2015. It involved 8 gender-based focus group discussions (FGDs) with patients and their caretakers. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from emancipated children and adults aged 15-65 years excluding the disabled due to data integrity issues. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0 and Atlas.ti 7 software were used for analysis. A questionnaire return rate of 83% was achieved of whom 84.3% were nurses (p
