Usual source of care and the quality of primary care: a survey of patients in Guangdong province, China

International Journal for Equity in Health

Research Article

Chien-Chou Chen¹  Zhicheng Du²  Yu Liao²  Yuantao Hao²  Ruwei Hu³ 

[1] Department of International Business, Ling Tung University, 40852, Taichung City, Taiwan, R.O.C;Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Health Information Research Center, Guangdong Key, Laboratory of Medicine, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, 74 Zhongshan Road II, 510080, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, Peoples Republic of China;Department of health management, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, 74 Zhongshan Road II, 510080, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, Peoples Republic of China;

关键词: Usual source of care;    Primary care;    Quality of care;    Community health centers;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12939-015-0189-4

 received in 2015-05-21, accepted in 2015-07-17,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionUsual source of care (USC) refers to the provider or place a patient consults when sick or in need of medical advice. No studies have been conducted in China to compare the quality of primary care provided with or without USC. The purpose of this study was to fill this gap in the literature by examining the quality of primary care provided between those having a USC and those without. Results of the study would provide implications for policymakers in terms of improving primary care performance in China, and help guide patients in their health care seeking behaviors.MethodsA cross-sectional survey with patients was conducted in Guangdong province of China, using the Chinese validated Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCAT). ANOVA was performed to compare the overall and ten domains of primary care quality for patients with and without USC. Multivariate analyses were used to assess the association between USC and quality of primary care attributes while controlling for sociodemographic and health care characteristics.ResultsThe study added evidence that having a USC can provide higher quality of primary care to patients than those without a USC. Results of this study showed that the PCAT score associated with those having a USC was significantly higher than those not having a USC. Moreover, the study showed that having a usual provider of care was also independently and significantly associated with patients’ satisfaction with care.ConclusionsThis study added evidence that in China, patients with a USC reported higher quality of medical care experiences compared with those without a USC. The efforts to improve quality of care should include policies promoting USC.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Du et al. 2016. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.