Consumer Satisfaction with Public Health Care in China

Abstract

Problem statement:Consumer satisfaction is regarded as one of the ultimate goals that all health system should strive for (Hsiao, 2003), it reflects the effectiveness of the health system in consumers' prospect. Yet public health care services in developing countries including Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) have failed to achieve adequate level of services. China, for example, satisfaction of public health care is considerably low. To improve public participation and effectiveness of the undergoing health reform initiatives in China, one must understand the underlying factors that contribute to consumer satisfaction for public health services. Approach: Therefore, this study explored the factors associated with consumers' satisfaction with public health care delivery among residents in Kunming city, Yunnan Province of China. Results: Personal interviews with structured-questionnaires were used to collect the data via a convenience sampling of 569 Kunming adult residents who had consulted a doctor for outpatient services in the public health facilities within the past 12 months. The survey questions were designed to gauge the respondents' health care use preferences, satisfaction levels, perceived quality and efficiency of public healthcare including their socio-economic characteristics. Consumers' satisfaction in public health care delivery, factors such as interaction, qualification, financial affordability, environment, physical accessibility, adequate doctors, confidentiality, pricing, corruption and consumers' socio-demographic characteristics were examined using the logistic regression. Conclusion/Recommendations: The results revealed that corruption have a negative impact on consumer satisfaction and perceived as a threat to consumer satisfaction. On the other hand, qualified doctors, affordable costs, adequate doctors and reasonable pricing of public health services were important factors to increase the probability of consumer satisfaction with public health care delivery and should be managed in priority.

CLIENTS’ SATISFACTION WITH REFERRAL SYSTEM IN KARBALA

“…There was a significant association between satisfaction with RS and age, where younger age appear to be more satisfied with RS. This result is different than other studies that shows an association between satisfaction with increasing age (Jiang et al, 2009;Greenhow et al, 1998). Also there was significant association with gender as females shows higher satisfaction than males.…”

Re-thinking the Incrementalist Thesis in China: A Reflection on the Development of the Minimum Standard of Living Scheme in Urban and Rural Areas

“…For example, the National Health Services Survey showed that in 2003 nearly half of respondents who had suffered health problems 'did not visit doctors for recommended treatment' and more than 10 per cent of patients 'did not have any treatment' because of financial difficulties (Zhao, 2006). Another study reported that of the 569 respondents in Kunming city in 2007, 58 per cent of them were dissatisfied/very dissatisfied with the affordability of public health care delivery (Jiang et al 2009). Thus, significant improvement in China's public health care delivery is urgent.…”

“…Another study reported that of the 569 respondents in Kunming city in 2007, 58 per cent of them were dissatisfied/very dissatisfied with the affordability of public health care delivery (Jiang et al . 2009). Thus, significant improvement in China's public health care delivery is urgent.…”

Helping the decision maker effectively promote various experts’ views into various optimal solutions to China’s institutional problem of health care provider selection through the organization of a pilot health care provider research system

“…This situation is also partly due to the fact that few implementation methodologies can meet the requirement of the difficult problem-solving process, since this problem-solving process involves an analysis of interdependent activities whose critical attributes include intangible elements. In the literature, a number of implementation methodologies have been applied to solve China’s institutional problem of health care provider selection, such as qualitative methods [7] and statistical methods [21]; however, none of them could handle the possible interactions among decision factors/constraints in the complex multi-stage setting in this problem, so they were not the effective implementation methodologies that could help the decision maker effectively promote various experts’ views into various optimal solutions to China’s institutional problem of health care provider selection.…”