Title |
Does having a usual primary care provider reduce patient self-referrals in rural China’s rural multi-tiered medical system? A retrospective study in Qianjiang District, China
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Published in |
BMC Health Services Research, November 2017
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DOI | 10.1186/s12913-017-2673-6 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Da Feng, Donglan Zhang, Boyang Li, Yan Zhang, Ray Serrano, Danxiang Shi, Yuan Liu, Liang Zhang |
Abstract |
Within China's multi-tiered medical system, many patients seek care in higher-tiered hospitals without a referral by a primary-care provider. This trend, generally referred to as patient self-referral behavior, may reduce the efficiency of the health care system. This study seeks to test the hypothesis that having a usual primary care provider could reduce patients' self-referral behavior. We obtained medical records of 832 patients who were hospitalized for common respiratory diseases from township hospitals in Qianjiang District of Chongqing City during 2012-2014. Logit regressions were performed to examine the association between having a township hospital as a usual provider and self-referring to a county hospital after being discharged from a township hospital, while controlling for patients' gender, age, income, education, severity of disease, distance to the nearest county hospital and the general quality of the township hospitals in their community. A propensity score weighting approach was applied. We found that having a usual primary care provider was associated with a lower likelihood of self-referral (odds ratio = 0.58, 95% confidence interval [CI] =0.41-0.82), and a 9% (95% CI: -14%, - 3%) reduction in the probability of patients' self-referral behavior. The results suggest that establishing a long-term relationship between patients and primary care providers may enhance the patient-physician relationship and reduce patients' tendency for unnecessary use of medical resources. |
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Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Unknown | 62 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
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Student > Master | 9 | 15% |
Student > Bachelor | 7 | 11% |
Researcher | 6 | 10% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 5 | 8% |
Other | 4 | 6% |
Other | 11 | 18% |
Unknown | 20 | 32% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
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Nursing and Health Professions | 14 | 23% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 6 | 10% |
Business, Management and Accounting | 4 | 6% |
Social Sciences | 4 | 6% |
Unspecified | 3 | 5% |
Other | 9 | 15% |
Unknown | 22 | 35% |