Descriptive Analysis of Patient Experience in Shanghai Primary and Tertiary Care Settings
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18192/uojm.v0i0.2199Keywords:
Family Medicine, General Practice, Shanghai, China, Primary CareAbstract
Context: China has recently undertaken a nationwide healthcare reform of primary care for its citizens. The new Ottawa-Shanghai Joint School of Medicine (OSJSM) entered this context of reform by developing family medicine training centres for its students.
Objective: This study seeks to understand patients’ demographic, perceptions of family medicine, and alignment of needs and values towards family medicine to inform the creation of these new centres.
Study Design: To this end, a culturally and linguistically appropriate patient experience survey was created and administered at two primary (CaoJiaDu and TangQiao Community Health Centers) and at a tertiary care centre (Renji Hospital). The survey consisted of questions on demographics, frequency of healthcare usage, satisfaction of care, barriers to access, prioritized values and perceptions of family medicine. It was administered to 400 patients conveniently sampled to have a balance of primary/tertiary settings.
Results: Despite common assumptions that Chinese patients may prefer specialist services, this study revealed a 68.3% preference for General Practitioners (GP) over Specialists. There was also overall agreement and preference for values of continuity, comprehensiveness, and coordination in healthcare.
Conclusion: These findings reveal that primary care is present in Shanghai and that the core values of family medicine are desired by a majority of respondents. Further analysis, qualitative corroboration and repeating the study in a wider population may be required for more generalizable conclusions, as this study in its current design was limited by convenience sampling.
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