ABSTRACT
Objective:To analyze the evolution path and diffusion mechanism of the unified drug management system of countywide medical communities in China, and provide references for the deepening implementation of the system.Methods:The policy documents of the central and provincial governments were retrieved with the keywords of " medical community" " drug management" " county-township-village integration" and " central pharmacy". By means of the policy diffusion theory, the evolution path of the diffusion of the unified drug management system for the countywide medical communities was identified from such dimensions as time, space and hierarchy. On the other hand, the action mechanism of the diffusion of the system was summarized from such aspects as competition, administrative instruction, learning and imitation.Results:A total of 36 effective policy documents were collected. The time diffusion of the drug unified management system of countywide medical communities was characterized by an " S" curve. By the end of 2022, there were 30 provinces implementing the countywide medical community drug unified management system, and the policy diffusion has entered a saturation and stagnation stage; spatial diffusion showed " proximity effect" ; hierarchy diffusion embodied the " leader follower" mode. In the process of policy diffusion, competition mechanism, administrative instruction mechanism, learning mechanism, and imitation mechanism coexisted, but there were difference in the dominant mechanism at different stages of policy diffusion.Conclusions:The unified drug management system of the countywide medical communities has been widely disseminated. It is recommended to promote the introduction of supporting policies, optimize the system evaluation system, and comprehensively use various diffusion mechanisms to promote the optimization of the system, so as to promote the deepening and sustainable operation of the system.