The Role of Professionalism and Workload in the Quality of Service of Teluk Belengkong Health Center Employees

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FORMOSA NEWS - Riau - High Workloads at Teluk Belengkong Health Center Substantially Reduce Service Speed and Public Satisfaction. A comprehensive healthcare study conducted from November 2025 to February 2026 reveals that extreme workloads and uneven staff professionalism significantly lower the quality of public healthcare delivery at the UPT Teluk Belengkong Health Center. The study, published in 2026, was conducted by researchers Chyntia Ofta Viola, Widyawati, and Asniati Bindas from the Universitas Islam Indragiri. This research highlights critical systemic issues within rural primary care facilities, showing that severe staffing imbalances directly trigger prolonged patient waiting times and reduce overall community satisfaction.

The Burden of Rural Healthcare Delivery
Primary healthcare centers, locally known as Puskesmas, serve as the frontline of public health defense in Indonesia. As the sole primary medical facility in the Teluk Belengkong District of the Indragiri Hilir Regency, the Teluk Belengkong Health Center bears the massive responsibility of managing the health needs of the entire sub-district. Local community surveys from the 2023 Community Satisfaction Index (IKM) categorized the center's services as "good" with a score of 77.8. However, this score remains far below the national "very good" benchmark of 288, with patients frequently reporting long delays and occasional unfriendliness from overwhelmed staff. To investigate these underlying dynamics, the research team from Universitas Islam Indragiri utilized a descriptive qualitative research methodology. Over a four-month period, Chyntia Ofta Viola, Widyawati, and Asniati Bindas analyzed 34 healthcare employees, including doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, and administrative workers. The investigators collected empirical data through intensive field observations, in-depth interviews with facility coordinators, and rigorous documentation reviews. The final data was systematically reduced, verified, and cross-examined using source and technique triangulation to ensure absolute analytical credibility.

Critical Disconnections in Staffing and Time Management
The empirical findings from the Universitas Islam Indragiri study pinpoint a severe imbalance between daily patient volumes and available human resources. While the facility accommodates between 50 and 80 patient visits per day, it operates with a total staff of just 34 individuals. Furthermore, these employees are collectively responsible for administering 14 distinct government-mandated health programs alongside their daily clinical duties. The key findings of the research indicate substantial structural and behavioral challenges:

• Extended Patient Waiting Times: Outpatients experience average waiting times ranging from 45 to 90 minutes. This far exceeds the maximum 30-minute standard mandated by the Indonesian Ministry of Health.
  
• Severe Quantitative Workload: Due to personnel shortages, individual staff members routinely manage two to three public health programs simultaneously. This division of labor results in overlapping shift schedules, mandatory overtime, and physical exhaustion.
  
• Fluctuating Procedural Compliance: Internal quality audits revealed that standard operating procedure (SOP) compliance stands at 73%. Stressed employees frequently alter established administrative steps during peak hours to expedite patient processing.
  
• Diminished Service Quality: Operational data underscores that service speed received the lowest community satisfaction rating at 72.4. Bureaucratic backlogs and manual queuing methods prevent rapid medical checkups.
  

The integration of data demonstrates a clear cyclical problem. Excessive qualitative and quantitative workloads deplete the physical and psychological energy of the medical staff. Consequently, this exhaustion reduces their capacity to maintain optimal communication and empathy, which ultimately drops patient satisfaction rates.

Transformative Steps for Public Policy and Healthcare Management
The insights generated by the Universitas Islam Indragiri research team offer practical, evidence-based recommendations for healthcare managers, public policy architects, and regional governments. Resolving rural healthcare deficits requires moving away from manual administrative frameworks and adopting structural optimization. First, regional health offices must prioritize local workforce restructuring. Reallocating administrative personnel and recruiting specialized medical professionals will balance the employee-to-patient ratio. Second, transitioning from outdated manual queuing mechanisms to digital health information systems will eliminate administrative bottlenecks and shorten patient waiting intervals. Finally, implementing systematic hospitality and communication training at least twice a year will help personnel preserve patient empathy even during high-stress operational shifts.

Author Profiles
Chyntia Ofta Viola is a researcher associated with the Universitas Islam Indragiri. Her academic work focuses on public health administration, organizational governance, and healthcare service quality.
Widyawati is a faculty member at the Universitas Islam Indragiri. She specializes in human resource management, workforce workload analysis, and institutional performance evaluation.
Asniati Bindas is an academic researcher at the Universitas Islam Indragiri. Her expertise centers on operational management, public service standards, and qualitative healthcare assessments.

Source
Chyntia Ofta Viola, Widyawati, Asniati Bindas. The Role of Professionalism and Workload in the Quality of Service of Teluk Belengkong Health Center Employees. Formosa Journal of Sustainable Research (FJSR). Vol. 5, No. 5 2026: 315-326.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/fjsr.v5i5.36
URL: https://journalfjsr.my.id/index.php/fjsr