Current situation of medical resource allocation and service utilization in Chinese hospitals based on structural change analysis
Objective To analyze the structural changes in medical resources allocation and service utilization based on Chinese hospital categorization,offering data-backed references for understanding the current states of China's medical service system and exploring the strategic allocation of resources.Methods Utilizing data obtained from publicly available sources on the healthcare industry development in China from 2013 to 2022,indicators such as the number of institutions,healthcare techni-cians,practicing(assistant)physicians,registered nurses,management personnel,outpatient service visits,and hospital admis-sions were selected.The structural change analysis method was applied to describe and analyze the current changes in the alloca-tion of medical resources and service utilization structure in hospitals in China.Results The study observed a consistent annual increase in the absolute number of medical and health service resources,with general hospitals and specialized hospitals ranked as the first two contributors to structural changes.General hospitals presented a negative trend,for the number of institutions,healthcare technicians,practicing(assistant)physicians,registered nurses,management personnel,outpatient service visits,and hospital admissions were all negative during the study period,while specialized hospitals showed a positive trend.Notably,general hospitals experienced a shift from negative to positive in the number of management personnel during 2020 and 2021,while specialized hospitals experienced a shift from positive to negative.Traditional Chinese medicine hospitals,integrated tradi-tional Chinese and Western medicine hospitals,ethnic hospitals,and nursing homes contributed little to the changes in all the in-dicators.Conclusion General hospitals show a negative trend in medical resources and service utilization,while specialized hos-pitals exhibit a positive trend.The trends suggest progresses in China in building a high-quality and efficient integrated medical and health service model on the basis of effectively promoting the increase in the total amount of high-quality resources.However,there is a need to refine the system for selecting,training,and developing management personnel.Traditional Chinese medicine,integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine hospitals,ethnic hospitals,and nursing homes require enhanced strategic planning and coordination.