The Study On Operation Statement And Input Policy Of Rural Medical Service System Of Jiangsu Province

Objectives: Based on the practical survey of the rural medical service system in Jiangsu province, the research attempts to identify potential inner issues, pinpoint their causes, and further discuss the role of provincial government and market in making financial input for such systems. According to Chinese national government's guideline for medical overhaul, the current study also attempts to propose pragmatically feasible input strategies in order to considerably raise the efficiency of government's relevant money investments. Starting from this jump point, the study is looking forward to reverse the marketized tendency of current medical system, return medical system to the state of serving public welfare instead of solely making profits, and enhance the overall development of rural medical enterprise.Methods: Distributing survey forms among 18 diverse sample counties (cities) in terms of economic development. Approximately 30% (1/3) of sample towns (including all administrative villages) will be randomly selected from each sample counties (cities). The research will be focused on social & economic condition on the county and town scale, the status quo of medical institutions on county, town and village level. A quantitative & statistical approach to the current operating mechanism of rural medical institution plus a precise measurement of its relevant amount of input funding will be well conducted.Results: The study reveals that: despite the preliminary establishment of a relatively functional rural medical system via increased government investment, various problems still existed: for most rural medical centers, the financial support from government is still inadequate given the fact that the main source of their funding still came from their service income; the income generated by their medical service was not even enough to cover their operating costs and the phenomenon of"using profits from medicine sale to sustain hospital"was becoming increasingly worse; the asymmetrical development in geographically different regions, particularly represented by the developmental gap between north and south rural medical system in Jiangsu province, still existed; the county & village medical institutions had a hard time surviving on the overall medical market; most villagers were still suffering from financial burdens imposed by their medical bills. Generally, there are lots of difficulties and obstacles ahead of us in terms of perfecting the rural medical care system.Policy recommendations: While increasing the general amount of input funding for the rural medical system, equal attention should be focused on optimizing its inner structure in order to reasonably adjust the share of input funding among its different sectors: economically less developed areas should be eligible for more funds accordingly; provincial government should financially support hospitals on different administrative levels in light of their different social & local functions; reasonably regulate the price of medical service; gradually weakening the role of medicine sale profits in providing hospitals'inputs; advancing rural medical system's effectiveness in serving patrons & patients and gradually facilitating the establishment of rural medical service system in Jiangsu Province; Implementing the quality- oriented evaluation system in order to provide reliable information about rural medical service system's practical performance and further associating it with government financial inputs.