Validity analysis of readmissions at seven townships and counties of China / 中华医院管理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To learn the suitability and validity of readmission service at counties and townships in rural China.Methods Seven pilot counties were randomly selected from the eastern,middle and western areas of China,and five diseases of the respiratory infection and cerebral system were set as the targets,while 600 target inpatient readmitted who had any of the five target diseases from 2012 to 2013 in such counties were selected from the NRCMS database.With expert consultation and empirical evaluation,the fitness of the days of stay at township hospital and necessity of hospitalization at county hospitals were evaluated for such target inpatients.Results 64.7％ of the target inpatients were found with unfit days of stay at township hospitals,mostly too short;59.0％ of the target inpatients' hospitalization at county hospitals were found with serious risk factors during their hospitalization;18.5％ of the inpatients were found with unnecessary hospitalization.Conclusions Hierarchical medical system can enhance the efficiency of the heahhcare system,but the current validity of readmission is poor,so is the fitness of days of stay at township hospitals,and the quality of the referral pattern.These problems mostly result from poor medical competence at township hospitals and high autonomy of patients in seeking medical service anywhere in the country.