Investigation of hyperbaric oxygenation medicine development in Hunan province of China

Abstract

Objective To know the development status of hyperbaric oxygen(HBO)medical discipline in Hunan Province. Methods Questionnaire, field survey, panel discussion, interview and the other methods were used to know human resources, equipments and facilities, medical treatment, teaching, research and other matters related to HBO medicine in this investigation. Results There are totally 288 hospitals at all levels carrying out HBO therapy provincially. Among them, municipal and county hospitals account for 34.0% and 55.9% respectively. The number of healthcare practitioners for HBO is 956. As for physician, junior and intermediate staff take up 41.8% and 35.7% respectively.Approximately two thirds of nurses are intermediate(63.1%). The largest part of technician is occupied by primary(68.8%). 74.8% of physicians graduated as bachelor, however, most of nurses(66.0%)and technicians(75.8%)only have diploma below the bachelor level.Among 407 medical oxygen cabins in Hunan Province, air compression chambers(ACC)account for 45.4%. 71.5% medical units within our survey use HBO. Annual income achieve 100-200 thousand for HBO therapy in 71.2% hospitals. 86.1% hospitals are carrying out less than 5 HBO programs. HBO is established as a independent discipline in 20.83% hospitals. HBO special clinic service is set up in 25.0% hospitals while HBO special ward is not set up in any hospitals. In the recent 5 years, there were 33 research subjects about HBO, and 88 papers were published, and teaching subjects existed in only 6 medical units. The awareness rate of HBO is only 11.2% in non-medical staff. Conclusions The popularization of HBO medicine is fairly limited in Hunan Province presently. Research and teaching of HBO medicine is weak and social awareness is low. At the same time, allocation of human resource in HBO discipline is unreasonable, the distribution and type composition ratio of the HBO equipment are not uniform. For HBO, the configuration of clinical application is not perfect, the application is passive, the economic benefit is low, and the application item is single. Key words: Hyperbaric oxygen; Investigation report; Medical hyperbaric oxygen chambers; Clinical application; Discipline