Impact of the zero-markup drug policy on volume of medical service: based on 57 county hospitals of China

doi:10.5246/jcps.2020.03.020

Abstract

Abstract:

In the present study, we aimed to assess the long-term impact of zero-markup drug policy on volume of medical service in county hospitals of China. This study used 57 county hospitals’ records of medical service from 2011 to 2015, and a fixed effect model was applied to examine the impact of the zero-markup drug policy on volume of medical service. The outcome indicators included the number of patient visits, the number of prescriptions, the number of discharged patients, the length of stay, the number of patients who had surgeries and the number of patients who had CT or MRI, monthly. The number of hospitals which implementedthe zero-markup drug policy was increased continuously. By the end of 2015, 41 hospitals (71.9%) implemented this policy. The panel regression showed that most indicators were insignificantly decreased, including the number of patient visits (P<0.01), the length of stay (P<0.05), the number of patients who had surgeries (P<0.01) and the number of patients who had CT or MRI (P<0.01). However, the number of prescriptions and the number of discharged patients were not signiﬁcantly changed. The implementation of the zero-markup drug policy might affect the reduction of the volume of medical service in county-level hospitals and the reason needs to be clarified in future studies.

Key words: Zero-markup drug policy, Volume of medical service, County hospitals, China

CLC Number:

R951

Supporting:

Zhifeng Nie, Chunxia Man, Xin Yi, Yi Liu, Zhigang Guo, Xiaodong Guan, Luwen Shi. Impact of the zero-markup drug policy on volume of medical service: based on 57 county hospitals of China[J]. Journal of Chinese Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2020, 29(3): 220-226.

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