Qualitative analysis of direction of public hospital reforms in China

Abstract

Reforms in public hospitals are among the most important improvements in China’s health care system over the last two decades. However, the reforms that should be implemented in public hospitals are unclear. Thus, a feasible direction of reforms in Chinese public hospitals is suggested and reliable policy suggestions are provided for the government to reform public hospitals. The data used in this study were mainly derived from a qualitative study. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted in Shanghai, Guangdong, and Gansu between May and December 2014. Government funding accounted for approximately eight percent of the total annual revenue of public hospitals in China, and the insufficient government subsidy considerably affects the operation mechanism of public hospitals. However, solely increasing this subsidy cannot address the inappropriate incentives of public hospitals in China. The most crucial step in setting the direction of reforms in public hospitals in China is transforming inappropriate incentives by implementing a new evaluation index system for directors and physicians in public hospitals.

Keywords

public hospital / government hospital / public funding / operation mechanism

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (No.13CGL135), the Humanities and Social Science Foundation of the Education Ministry of China (No. 12YJCZH301), Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Shanghai (No. 2014BGL002), SMC-Chenxing Foundation of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the Humanities and Sciences Cross‑disciplinary Foundation of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (No. 14JCY04), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.71473158).

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Dahai Zhao and Zhiruo Zhang declare that they have no conflict of interest. This manuscript does not involve a research protocol requiring approval by the relevant institutional review board or ethics committee.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2017 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg