Descriptive Analysis of Patient Experience in Shanghai Primary and Tertiary Care Settings

Abstract

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.