Objective To investigate current situation of medical service and management in Gaozha Central Township Health Center (GzC), so as to provide baseline data for township health centers in both key techniques research and product development of drugs allocation and delivery. Methods A questionnaire combined with a special interview was carried out, which included the general information, human resources, medical service and management, and the practice of essential medicine list. Results a) The hardware condition of GzC was not good enough, and the economic status of the service recipients was lower than the average level of both Wuzhong City and China mainland; b) The constituent ratio of general practitioner (GP) and nurse, and GP and laboratorian were all lower than those of national level, while, the constituent ratio of GP and technician was a little bit higher. GzC was in short of medical technical personnel and, especially, the professional pharmacists. The logistics technical workers were as the same proportion as the nurses. The medical technical personnel without professional education background accounted for 3.4%, and about 38% of the staff members had no college degree, about 86.2% had at most primary profession titles. There was no personnel turnover of GzC in recently years; c) The bed utilization ratio was lower than national level (46.4% vs. 60.7%), while the average duration of stay and the in-patient and out-patient service workload of GP were longer or heavier than national level (8 vs. 4.8, 9 vs. 8.3, 4 vs. 1.3); d) The out-patient service in 2010 decreased 26.9% compared to 2009; and the in-patient service in 2010 decreased 42.4%; e) The average medical expense per outpatient and per inpatient increased 127.3% and 56.2%, respectively in 2010 compared to 2009; and f) Essential medicine list was put into practice in April 1st of 2010 and there was only 195 species available in GzC, which has not met the requirements of the national essential medicine list. Conclusion In order to meet the standards of general rural township health center in western China, GzC needs to cope with challenges of insufficient hardware conditions, short of staff, unreasonable personnel structure, low educational background and professional title of the staff, none human resources flow and low technical level of medical service. GzC dose well in drug expenses control, and the hospitalization costs are lower than those of the national level. However, it increases rapidly in 2010. The management of GzC may be influenced by zero-profit sale of the essential drugs, and appropriate subsidy and policy support are necessary to maintain its service quality. And it is required to complement the medicine based on the evidences, to carry out staff training and usage guidance of essential medicine, and to finally guarantee the safe and reasonable use of medicines.
Objective To investigate the disease constitution and cost of inpatients in Gaozha Central Township Health Center (GzC) in Wuzhong City of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from 2008 to 2010, so as to provide baseline data for further research. Methods A questionnaire combined with a special interview was carried out, and case records and cost information of GzC inpatients in 2008, 2009 and 2010 (from January to November) were collected. The diseases in discharge record were classified according to International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) based on the first diagnose and the cost was analyzed. Data including general information of the inpatients, discharge diagnosis, hospitalization expenses, and drug cost etc. were rearranged and analyzed by Excel software. Results a) The total number of the inpatients was 1124, 642 and 747 in 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively. The female was more than the male in both 2008 (59.34% vs. 40.66%) and 2009 (60.75% vs. 39.25%), and their disease spectrum included 17 categories, which accounted for 81% of ICD-10; b) The top six most commonly seen systematic diseases with a constituent ratio from 86.63% to 92.06% in recent three years were as follows: the respiratory system, digestive system, circulatory system, genitourinary system, injury and toxicosis, skeletal musculature and connective tissue disease. Except the injury and toxicosis, the other five systematic diseases were commonly seen in females rather than in males; c) The top 15 monopathies in recent three years were pulmonary infection, tracheitis or bronchitis, coronary heart disease, soft tissue injury, gastritis or chronic gastritis, upper respiratory infection, hypertension, urinary tract infection, prolapse of lumbar intervertebral disc, pelvic inflammation, fracture, pneumocardial diseases, superficial injury, chronic cholecystitis and arthritis; d) The main burdens of disease for inpatients focused on 35-54 age groups, then followed by the age groups above 55 in 2008 and 2009. Except the injury and toxicosis, the other diseases were commonly seen in females rather than in males. Pulmonary infection focused on the age groups above 35; the onset of hypertension increased obviously and a sharp rise of hypertension existed in the 45-54 age groups in 2008, but the hypertention focused on 35-44 age groups in 2009; e) The total inpatients with top 15 monopathies accounted for 64.06% to 71.21%, including 8-9 chronic diseases ranking higher in 2010, and 6-7 acute diseases focusing on infection and injury; and f) The average costs of chronic diseases were higher than those of acute diseases. Conclusion a) There is a big gap between GzC and Yong’an Central Township Health Center (YaC) regarding the level of the regional economic development, the situation of disease burden and cost of inpatients. The former is demonstrated as general Central Township Health Center, while the latter as affluent Central Township Health Center in western China; b) In recent three years, the main systematic diseases are in respiratory, circulatory and digestive system; the inpatients suffer from more chronic diseases rather than acute diseases in their young age; the acute diseases mainly include infection and injury, and the pulmonary infection has ranked as the first during the past three years; c) The inpatients in 2008 and 2009 are mainly in ages of 35 to 54, and then are over 55 years old. Except the injury and toxicosis, the other diseases were commonly seen in females rather than in males; d) The patients’ average costs of chronic diseases for hospitalization and drug in 2010 were lower than those of YaC. Consideration on reasonable constitution of the cost for hospitalization should be paid attention to; and e) It is urgent to strengthen the construction of infrastructure and informatization in GzC.