ABSTRACT
Objective@#To construct a competency evaluation model for health managers based on the grounded theory, so as to provide insights into the training and evaluation of health managers.@*Methods@# From December 2022 to March 2023, health managers with three years and more of working from health management center of a tertiary hospital, a health management enterprise and a university with a top-tier ranking for the major of "Health Services and Management" were invited, and a semi-structured interview on competency was conducted based on grounded theory. Coding techniques were applied to analyze the interview data, including open coding, axial coding, selective coding and theoretical saturation testing using NVivo12 software. Based on the coding results and drawing inspiration from McClelland's "Iceberg Competency Model Structure", a competency evaluation model for health managers was formulated.@*Results@#Twenty-one health managers participated in the study, including 8 participants from the hospital, 7 participants from the enterprise and 6 participants from the university, 14 females, 17 participants with 3-10 years of working, and 6 participants with the rank of associate senior professional title or above. The interview yielded 5 main categories, from which the competency evaluation model for health managers was developed with five dimensions: professional development, health management capability, communication and coordination, humanistic care, and personal traits. professional development and health management capability constituted the overt competencies of health managers, while communication and coordination, humanistic care, and personal traits formed their implicit competencies. @*Conclusions@#The competency evaluation model for health managers constructed in this study includes explicit competency and implicit competency, which is expected to serve as a reference for the effective selection and cultivation of health managers.