Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HB, United Kingdom
  • 2 Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Malaya, Level 5, Block I, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
  • 3 Center for Health Policy Research and Evaluation, School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China, No. 59 Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100872, China
  • 4 Henan Province Yongcheng Central Hospital, Zhongyuan Road, Yongcheng, Shangqiu 476610, China
Health Policy Plan, 2023 Feb 13;38(2):161-169.
PMID: 36420873 DOI: 10.1093/heapol/czac101

Abstract

This study aims at examining changes in coronary heart disease (CHD) hospitalization associated with a novel county-scale chronic disease management (CDM) programme policy implemented in March 2019 in China during the 13th Five-Year period (2016-2020). The CDM programme was designed to improve the health of populations with chronic diseases by means of an integrated way involving both county-level public hospitals and primary care institutes. Data originated from the medical files of CHD inpatients discharged from a secondary hospital from January 2017 to December 2020. A total of 6111 CHD patient records were collected. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed to assess changes in hospitalization direct medical costs and length of stay of CHD patients. The mean direct medical cost of CHD hospitalization was 8419.73 Yuan, and the mean length of stay was 7.57 days. Results suggested that the implementation of CDM reduced hospitalization direct medical cost and bed days by about 23% (1956.12 Yuan at means) and 11.5% (almost 1 day at means), respectively. In addition, a further decreasing trend in medical costs over time was associated with chronic disease management. It is implied that chronic disease management is an effective way of relieving the medical and financial burden of hospitalization.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.