Health management services provided by primary health professionals in rural areas of Beijing

Abstract

Objective To learn current status of health management provided by primary health professionals working in rural areas of Beijing. Methods Health professionals in township hospitals in Beijing were selected by multi-phase random sample method in 2012 and surveyed by a standardized questionnaire to gathering the data on various health management contents, including health checkup, chronic disease management et al, the action location, its collaborative persons and sectors.Statistics description and inference were conducted to describe and compare the distribution of health management implementation across rural areas by descriptive methods and test, respectively. Results Nearly 66.3%(321/484) of subjects provided health check-up, and 19.1% (92/481)involved in follow-up study of mental diseases.The main targets population of health management were chronic diseases and the elderly, with response rate of 44.7%(214/479)and 38.0%(182/479), respectively.Health check-up, health education and follow-up of chronic diseases were performed in 62.1%(298/480), 52.4%(251/479) and 42.8%(206/481) of the township health centers.About 66.1%(292/442) township health centers had cooperation with general practitioners; however, cooperation with administrative personnels was only 10.6%(47/443). More than 41.4%(201/463) township health centers cooperated with community administrative sectors, and cooperation with the propaganda department was only 10.6%(49/464). The statistical difference across regions shows in the following, including health management action ( health checkup, chronic disease patients following-up, et al), the target population covered (youth, elder person, children, and chronic disease patients), health management location(health checkup, education and chronic disease patients following-up in township hospital and village clinic), cooperation with General Practitioner. Conclusions Our results suggest that the actual situation on health management service in Beijing rural areas and the standards of public health equalization of China are still disjoined, even difference exists across regions.In order to improve the health management service quality, we should strengthen the health management personnel training, increase the general practitioner in proportion, establish the performance evaluation mechanism, increase governmental finance to support those service. Key words: Rural health; Health personnel; Health surveys