Abstract:
The organizations concerning primary care have tried to develop their effectiveness service for all people equally. This research has its main objectives to study the readiness in the networks for network operation and to study supporting factors and obstacles found in three health centers, namely Phra Pathom Chedi community medical center, Sanam Chan sanitarium and Nakhon Pathom municipality health center. The methodology utilized were semi-structured interview and, participatoryobservation. The results from the study revealed that all three centers had different readiness for network operation. Phra Pathom Chedi community medical center had comparatively most readiness. The second is Sanam Chan sanitarium whereas Nakhon Pathom municipality health center had not shown its readiness. The factors affecting the readiness in network operation were the community characteristics, size, and budget administration system, staff working style, executive working style, organization regulations, knowledge and capability in responsible job, executives roles in network operation, manpower allocation, quality assurance and control of network operation, cooperation with other organizations, and monitoring and evaluation system. I was also found that the obstacles of networking include the lack of policy for stakeholders participation, no information technology for coordination, no performance based direction planning, complex organization structure and line of command, inadequate morale of staff, insufficient stakeholders in the network, no knowledge management or learning organization practice, and no effective unit cost management system.From this study, it recommended that the agencies of the Public Health Ministry at national and local levels put the emphasis on more stakeholders participation, recruiting more doctors, more incentive for staff, more support for knowledge management. In addition, the primary care units should recruit more volunteers, use more information technology for coordination, create more cooperation of stakeholders in the network, use performance based direction planning, and manage unit cost system. Besides, the organizational structure of primary care units should modified to be more simple and flexible