This study analyzes the factors that influence the turnover intention of village doctors by investigating village clinic workers in rural areas, particularly in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province. A total of 1184 village clinics were sampled randomly in Xiangyang City. The research assistants distributed 1930 questionnaires to village doctors. This study had a response rate of 97.88%. A total of 1889 village doctors completed the questionnaires. The results of the investigation conducted in Xiangyang City indicated that 63.2% of the village doctors did not plan to leave the organization where they were currently employed. However, more than one-third (36.8%) of the village doctors considered leaving their posts voluntarily. Some job satisfaction indexes affect their intention to resign. The results showed that income satisfaction and the way organization policies are put into practice, in addition, my pay and the amount of work I do, the chances for advancement on this job and the work conditions are significant factors that contribute to the turnover intention of village doctors. This study may interest heath care management administrator and highlight the influence of job satisfaction on turnover intention of village doctors. Our findings outline some issues that contribute to these problems and suggest an approach for health care policy maker to implement a broader national process and organizational strategies to improve the job satisfaction and stability of the village doctors.
20 August 2019 in Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases
Rare diseases are one of the major challenges in the era of precision medicine and reflect the social security level of minority groups. This study aimed to investigate healthcare service utilization and health security of patients with rare diseases in China. From 29 provinces of Mainland China, 7,747 visits with eight common rare diseases who were linked to the national insurance database between 2014 and 2016 were selected as the study population, whose demographic and healthcare service information was collected from China’s national monitoring system for health service utilization of patients with healthcare insurance. Univariate analysis was performed to describe the basic statement of healthcare service, such as visit type, institution type, length of stay, healthcare insurance utilization, and the results of disease burden for different groups and its factors were analyzed by multivariate analysis. Medical treatment from general tertiary hospitals was sought by 61.4% of the patients with rare diseases. Of the total treatment cost (TTC) of 40.18 million Chinese Yuan, 63.3% was paid by basic health insurance, and 54.2% of the medical cost resulted from medicine expenditure. Demography, geography and social-economic factors, security level, and health institution situation had an effect on the TTC. The correlations between these factors and TTC were different for outpatients and inpatients. Reimbursement rate had the highest effect on inpatients’ TTC. Basic insurance was effective for providing support for patients with rare diseases that involved high costs; however, the coverage was limited. Healthcare insurance is an effective safeguard for patients with rare diseases; however, affordable and accessible treatment is still lacking for such patients. There remains a need to further improve the diagnostic and treatment technology for rare diseases and expertise among doctors, as well as the security level of healthcare policies.
20 August 2019 in The International Journal of Health Planning and Management
Background: Myasthenia gravis is a rare autoimmune neuromuscular disorder. The disorder requires long-term use of expensive medication to control clinical symptoms. This study analyzed the change in trends of total medical expenses and out-of-pocket expenses for patients with myasthenia gravis and explored the factors influencing them.Methods: In this retrospective study, data were derived from a survey of medical service utilization for patients insured by the Urban Basic Medical Insurance in China from 2013 to 2015. The cost data of 3347 patients with myasthenia gravis were included in this study. The baseline characteristics and medical expenses for patients with myasthenia gravis were analyzed using a descriptive method. The difference and influencing factors of the out-of-pocket ratio were analyzed from both outpatient and inpatient expenses by using the quantile regression method.Results: The total expenses reimbursed by the Urban Basic Medicine Insurance for all patients with myasthenia gravis fell progressively from 73.1 to 58.7% during the study period. Patients’ out-of-pocket expenses increased gradually, of which expenses within the scope of Basic Medicine Insurance increased from 14.7 to 22.6% and expenses outside of the Basic Medicine Insurance scope increased from 12.6 to 18.7%. Moreover, the panel quantile results showed a positive correlation between theyear of receiving treatmentand the out-of-pocket ratio. In addition to the 25th quantile of the out-of-pocket ratio among outpatients with myasthenia gravis, there were significant differences inmedical insuranceandmedical institutionamong all the other quantiles. Significant regional differences were found in all quantiles of the out-of-pocket ratio, except for the 75th quantile among inpatients. Lastly,agehad a negative effect on inpatients with myasthenia gravis across all quantiles, but not on outpatients.Conclusions: From 2013 to 2015, patients with myasthenia gravis’s out-of-pocket expenses increased progressively. Moreover, the individual out-of-pocket ratio was affected by the year, medical insurance, medical institution, region, and age. The current medical insurance policy for the general public has a low ability to cater for patients with myasthenia gravis.