Research on the current situation of public health services compensation at public hospitals in Zhejiang province

Abstract

Objective To explore the financial compensation strategy on the basis of understanding the current situation of compensation for public health services at public hospitals in Zhejiang province. Methods From July to October, 2017, an interview survey was conducted at 23 public hospitals in 7 cities in Zhejiang province to understand the current situation of financial compensation for public health services at public hospitals. At the same time, the data of income and expenditure in 2016 of every hospital were collected and analyzed by the methods of descriptive statistics. Results The average proportion of financial subsidies at the 23 public hospitals in 2016 was 6.29%, of which public health special subsidy accounted for 0.44% of total hospital revenues. Only 9 of the 23 hospitals had surplus in 2016, accounting for 39.13%. Conclusions The public health services compensation mechanism of public hospitals in Zhejiang province calls for further reforms. The government departments should comprehensively formulate financial compensation policies at the provincial level according to the public health assignments and call into play a variety of compensation methods, to establish a long-term assessment mechanism and ensure that public hospitals can proactively carry out public health services. Key words: Hospitals, public; Public health services; Financial compensation; Strategy; Zhejiang province