Empirical research of the impacts of the essential medicine system based on the double-difference model upon the first contact orientation of the residents / 中华医院管理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the policy effect of first contact care options of residents under the essential medicine system.Methods The samples were divided into a treatment group and a control group depending whether the policy is implemented.Difference-in-differences model was used to estimate the changes in the First Contact Care choice of residents before and after the implementation.Results The net effect of policy is 6.15％,in which the resident category of the household head and per capita income were statistically significant.Conclusion Though the system promotes the first contact of residents for primary institutions,top-level design of the system calls for optimization,efficiency and equity of the health resource allocation of urban and rural health need to be improved,and the division of responsibilities of the two-level medical institutions needs to be clarified in first contact care system.