Determinants of the Implementation of Healthcare Projects in Kenya: a Case of Coast General Hospital, Mombasa County.

Abstract

Healthcare projects form part of the most crucial sector of the economies since they lead to the presence of health services. The health care services provisions therefore are life sustaining services and no one given sector of the economy that doesn’t depend on health. This makes the healthcare projects very crucial in any given system of governance since they ensure that the essential services like medical drugs and medication are availed to people. However, despite the importance of health care projects in any given country, studies in the less developed countries like Kenya indicates that their implementation is wanting and majority of the citizens lack crucial healthcare services. This is tied to a number of challenges that cut across the internal and external environments. It is against this wanting state of the healthcare projects in the developing countries that this study was carried out. This study was carried out therefore with the aim of examining the determinants of implementation of healthcare projects in Kenya; a case of Coast General Hospital in Mombasa County. The study was guided by four objectives that included: to examine how funding availability influences the implementation of healthcare projects; to assess how community awareness influences the implementation of healthcare projects; to determine how project size influences the implementation of healthcare projects; and to establish how the procurement process influences the implementation of healthcare projects in Kenya; a case of Coast general hospital, Mombasa County. A descriptive research design was used with a target population of 520 and a sample size of 52 respondents. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews whereas statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data. Descriptive statics with the mean, standard deviations, frequency tables and percentages were used to present the data. A regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. In relation to the first objective, results indicated that majority of the respondents strongly agreed that funding availability determined the implementation of healthcare projects in Mombasa County with an average mean of 4.85. Further, majority of the respondents strongly agreed that community awareness had an influence of an average mean of 4.74 as a determinant on the implementation of healthcare projects in Mombasa County. This was further supported by a standard deviation of 0.37. Further, results indicated that: majority of the respondents strongly agreed that project size has a significant influence on the implementation of healthcare projects as indicated by a combined mean of 4.77 and standard deviation of 0.35. Finally, the study findings indicated that majority of the respondents strongly agreed that the procurement process variable determined the implementation of the healthcare project. The study concluded that: adequate funding had the highest determinant on the implementation of healthcare projects; project size, community awareness, and procurement processes influence the implementation of healthcare projects. Key Terms: Funding Availability, Community Awareness, Project size, Procurement Process, and Implementation of healthcare projects.