ABSTRACT
In China,with the restructuring of health care system moving forward,private community health facilities have been playing a complementary but increasingly important role in providing public health and basic medical care services in urban areas.However,only limited evidence is available concerning the service functions of private community health facilities in China.The aim of this study was to explore the functions of private community health stations (PCHSs) to provide evidence-based recommendations for policy-making and practice in the development of urban community health services systems.A total of 818 PCHSs and 4320 government-sponsored community health stations (GCHSs)located in 28 cities of China were investigated in 2008.The percentages of stations that provided health services and the annual workload per community health worker (CHW) were compared between the two types of institutions.The results showed that the percentages of PCHSs providing public health services were significantly higher than those of GCHSs (P＜0.05); but no significant differences were found in the percentages of basic medical services providing between PCHSs and GCHSs (P＞0.05).The annual workloads of all the public health services and basic medical services per CHW in PCHSs were lighter than those in GCHSs (P＜0.05),except for resident health records establishment and health education materials distribution (P＞0.05).At present,the GCHSs are still the mainstream in urban China,which will last for a long period in future.However,our findings showed that the annual workloads of CHWs in PCHSs were no heavier than those in GCHSs,and the PCHSs were willing to provide public health services.In view of current inadequacy of health resources in China,it is feasible to further develop PCHSs under the guidance of the government,given that PCHSs can perform the basic functions of community health services,which is useful for the formation of public-private partnerships (PPP) and the improvement of community health services.
ABSTRACT
The objective of this study was to examine the inpatient bed(IB)allocation equity and utilization in Chinese city community health service centers(CHSCs).The data were derived from the Baseline Survey of National City Community Health Service System Building Project,which was conducted in 1917 CHSCs in 28 cities in 2007.The IB allocation was analyzed in terms of IB allocation quantity and distribution equity,and the IB utilization was analyzed by the IB utilization rate and average length of stay of the CHSC inpatients.The results showed that 49.3% of the CHSCs were equipped with IB; averagely,there were 45 IBs per CHSC,0.94 IBs per 1000 people,and 0.38 nurses and 0.57 doctors per IB; the IB Gini coefficient was 0.32; the IB utilization rate was 40.06%; and the average length of stay of inpatients was 12.24 days.The conclusions were that IB allocation among the population was equitable,but the number of nurse per IB was not up to the national standard; and the CHSC IB utilization was low as a whole,thus inpatient service was not the main health service for Chinese CHSCs.