Top Health Service Concerns: A Data Mining Study of the Shanghai Health Hotline

Abstract

Objective Our study aims to explore the health service issues of public concern through analyzing the basic characteristics of callers and information from health service work orders. The findings of this study will provide a reference to relevant government departments and assist the government in optimizing the allocation of health resources. Methods We used 16,962 original work orders from the Health Hotline in Shanghai since 2015 as our research data. We applied natural language processing to analyze the work orders. We conducted data cleaning on the work orders' textual content, and established a work order database. We performed analysis on call duration, content, purpose, topic, and other dimensions, using the 12320 Health Hotline call records from Shanghai in 2015. Results Out of the calls, they were categorized into four main groups: complaints, suggestions, inquiries and requests for assistance. Among these calls, the most common category was complaints with a total of 8,669 (51.11%), followed by help-seeking with 3335 (19.66%), consulting with 2727 (16.08%) and comments and opinion suggestions with 1484 (8.75%). The analysis of the data also showed that 6,689 calls (56.88%) from men outnumbered 5,071 calls (43.12%) from women, with 2,126 calls from parents (56.84%) slightly outnumbered 1,614 calls from children (43.16%). Furthermore, the top 10 health service concerns in Shanghai included attitudes towards services, medications, fees, registration, family planning, medical disputes, ambulances, environmental health, illegal medical practices, and immunization. Conclusions The concerns reflected by the Shanghai Health Hotline mirror the genuine health service needs of residents, carrying significant implications for urban health governance. These top 10 health service concerns in Shanghai hold paramount importance. They provide valuable insights for relevant government departments to implement targeted measures aimed at enhancing the quality of health services.