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Overall progress of the Healthy China initiative highlights the importance of medical humanities in the connotation construction of health services, hence making standardized construction and effective governance of medical social workers a focus of the current healthcare reform. This study summarized the practices of medical social workers engaged in the cabin hospital in Wuchang district, Wuhan city, Hubei province during the outbreak of COVID-19. Their efforts aimed at reducing the stress faced by front-line medical workers, and assisting the patients to achieve body-mind balance for better treatment outcomes." Online+ offline" and" in-cabin+ out-of-cabin" service teams were organized to assist these medical staff, provide social support, and integrate resources. The study analyzed the problems and challenges in the process of practice, and provided a reference for further improving the management of public health emergency services.
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Objective To study the quality of outpatient prescriptions for patients of different age groups at both township and village level,for the purpose of evaluating the outcomes and problems of the ongoing healthcare reform at primary levels.Methods 100 outpatient prescriptions of April 2015 were mechanically sampled randomly from two township hospitals and 8 village clinics in counties A and B in Hubei province.These prescriptions were analyzed for the drug count per prescription,percentage of intravenous prescriptions,that of antibiotics,that of hormones and average cost per prescription.Results At the township hospitals,the drug count per prescription(2.02)of county A was less than that of county B(3.26),while the percentage of intravenous prescriptions(30.30%),that of antibiotics(47.98%)and hormones(6.57%)of county A were significantly less than those of county B(50.65%,69.08% and 15.13% respectively).At village clinic level,the percentage of intravenous prescriptions(31.05%)of county A was higher than that of county B(20.34%),the average prescription costs(￥29.28)of county A was less than county B(￥31.45);while in terms of children′s prescriptions,average drug count of county A(2.50)was higher than county B(2.09),and its proportion of antibiotics(65.91%)was higher than county B(45.56%).Conclusions General primary care reform is faced with challenges of poor control of intravenous injection and use of antibiotics,particularly at village clinics and pediatric drug use in terms of prescription quality control.Both township and village levels should strengthen the supervision over the drug suppliers,guide the demand side to rationally use drugs and focus on the reasonableness of the medication of village clinics and children.
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Objective By means of analyzing the antihypertensive use of hypertension patients of Guiyang in 2013 and impact factors for basic drug use,to evaluate the impacts of the essential medicines list in place in Guiyang to hypertension patients in communities in Guiyang.Methods 969 hypertension patients were surveyed with structured questionnaire of stratified random sampling at 6 community health centers in Guiyang city.Results Hypertension patients in communities averaged 1.4 types of antihypertensive,and the essential medicines used accounted for 39.8％of all the antihypertensive.The distribution differences of the ratio of essential medicines use are significant interms of age,gender,and household annual income.Use ratio of non-essential medicines of the 55～64 age group and 65～74 age group are 3.48 times and 0.47 times over that of the 75 and above age group.For hypertension patients of low income and medium income,their probable use of non-essential medicines is 2.05 and 2.87 times that of high income households.Conclusion As the use ratio of hypertension patients in Guiyang is relatively low,and the factors for it are age and household income,focused intervention is recommended for the 65～74 age group and low-income households,for the purpose of high use ratio of essential medicines of such people.
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Objective To probe into a doctor-seeking medical management model for China's urban hypertension patients under medical insurance, and enhance the level and quality of medical insurance management. Methods Hypertension patients were surveyed with a structured questionnaire, and the staff at community health centers and medical insurance management centers received qualitative interview. Results The hypertension patients are found to see doctors mostly at community health centers and tertiary hospitals; complaints among hypertension patients for existing medical insurance vary with their areas, mostly targeting on complicated reimbursement procedure, high threshold of medical insurance payment and low level of reimbursement. Recommendation Experiment with the single-disease payment for hypertension, with the total prepayment in per capita and per disease; greater efforts in hypertension control in communities, with more favorable medical insurance policies for communities;elevated collaboration with medical institutions at all levels, and building and standardizing the management information network for hypertension patients.
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This study was designed to measure the performance of county health systems in central and western China utilizing routine healthcare data. Drawing on a literature review and expert consultation, the study established a theoretical framework and an indicator system for performance review. Questionnaires were designed and disseminated to collect empirical data on health system performance in four counties of two central and western provinces. Quantitative data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis through SPSS12.0. Three dimensions were introduced in the performance review framework-health outcomes, financial risk protection and consumer and provider satisfaction. Health outcomes were assessed from four secondary indicators: infant mortality rate; maternal mortality rate; under-5 child mortality rate; and the incidence of Class A and Class B notifiable diseases. Financial risk was assessed using two secondary indicators: the proportion of the cost of inpatient care that was reimbursed under the New Cooperative Medical System (NCMS) insurance scheme, and the rate of NCMS funds utilization. The assessment of satisfaction was made using two secondary indicators: the overall satisfaction of local residents with healthcare services, and the satisfaction of health practitioners at the township and village level. The study indicated better health system performance in the two counties in Chongqing than those in Shanxi. It was concluded that outcome framework scores can fairly reveal performance differences among county health systems in central and western China, and can provide practical evidence for optimizing the operation and inputs of county health systems. Caution needs to be exercised in generalizing such performance outcomes as many factors such as spending and organization that contribute to county health system performance were not included in the study.
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Objective To measure the financial burden incurred by hypertension to urban patients in Beijing, Nanjing and Hangzhou cities. Methods Two communities were sampled from the three cities randomly, and 300 hypertension patients were sampled randomly from hypertension control files in each community for questionnaire survey. Results Health expenditure of the families with hypertension patients accounts for 14. 4% of the family's income, and 18. 2% of the family's expenditure, a ratio far beyond the national average (10.6 %). However, the majority of them report the burden as affordable.The basic medical insurance for urban residents helps alleviate the financial burden of hypertension patients and the extent of such burden has a close bearing on the outcome of hypertension treatment and prevention. Conclusion Effective community-based blood-pressure monitoring and control system is key to reducing the financial burden of hypertension. The reimbursement policy for hypertensive patients within the basic medical insurance is expected to be further improved.