Factors That Influence the Quality of Doctor's Services in Children’s Diarrhea Cases in Indonesia

Diarrhea is one of the diseases that can increase child mortality rate. More than 2.3 billion cases and 1.5 million children under five years die from diarrhea. Good quality doctors can have positive influence on the quality of service. Outcome of good service is the increased level of health, including reduced child mortality caused by diarrhea. Analysis of the quality of doctors in Indonesia needs to be done to improve the quality of health workers. Methods: This study was a quantitative study using secondary data analysis Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) 2007 using cross-sectional design. IFLS 2007 data were collected from 13 provinces. Number of doctors as respondents were 786. Analysis of the quality of doctor was assessed from vignette questions on the health centers block and private practice block by scoring each question that can be answered. Data was analyzed by bivariate test with independen T test using STATA. Results: The average correct answer of doctor was 22.25 ± 7.9 out of 56 questions. Doctors who worked for < 6 years had a score of 2.43 points higher than who worked for > 15 years and 2.18 points higher than who worked for 6-15 years. The quality of doctors who received diarrhea training were 2.18 points higher than those who did not. Doctors who worked in eastern Indonesia had an average quality of 3.42 points higher than who worked in Sumatra and 1.84 points higher than who worked in Java-Bali. The work place was not influenced on doctor quality. Conclusion: The quality of doctors in handling child diarrhea cases in Indonesia needs improvement. Doctors who have a working period of less than six years, attend diarrhea training and work in eastern Indonesia have a better quality than the other.