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Whether Public Hospital Reform Affects the Hospital Choices of Patients in Urban Areas: New Evidence from Smart Card Data

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  • Fangye Du

    (Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A, Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China
    College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

  • Jiaoe Wang

    (Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A, Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China
    College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

  • Haitao Jin

    (School of Computer, Beijing Information Science and Technology University, Beijing 100101, China)

Abstract

The effects of public hospital reforms on spatial and temporal patterns of health-seeking behavior have received little attention due to small sample sizes and low spatiotemporal resolution of survey data. Without such information, however, health planners might be unable to adjust interventions in a timely manner, and they devise less-effective interventions. Recently, massive electronic trip records have been widely used to infer people’s health-seeking trips. With health-seeking trips inferred from smart card data, this paper mainly answers two questions: (i) how do public hospital reforms affect the hospital choices of patients? (ii) What are the spatial differences of the effects of public hospital reforms? To achieve these goals, tertiary hospital preferences, hospital bypass, and the efficiency of the health-seeking behaviors of patients, before and after Beijing’s public hospital reform in 2017, were compared. The results demonstrate that the effects of this reform on the hospital choices of patients were spatially different. In subdistricts with (or near) hospitals, the reform exerted the opposite impact on tertiary hospital preference compared with core and periphery areas. However, the reform had no significant effect on the tertiary hospital preference and hospital bypass in subdistricts without (or far away from) hospitals. Regarding the efficiency of the health-seeking behaviors of patients, the reform positively affected patient travel time, time of stay at hospitals, and arrival time. This study presents a time-efficient method to evaluate the effects of the recent public hospital reform in Beijing on a fine scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Fangye Du & Jiaoe Wang & Haitao Jin, 2021. "Whether Public Hospital Reform Affects the Hospital Choices of Patients in Urban Areas: New Evidence from Smart Card Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-14, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:15:p:8037-:d:604339
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    1. Fangye Du & Jiaoe Wang & Yu Liu & Zihao Zhou & Haitao Jin, 2022. "Equity in Health-Seeking Behavior of Groups Using Different Transportations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-16, February.

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