Abstract:

Objective  To track and investigate the difference in cost after zero-profit medicine policy was implemented in Ruijin Hospital North, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, prepare the principal component analysis table of outpatient expenses, emergency expenses, and hospitalization expenses before and after adjustment of prices, analyze the impact of each factor on medical expenses, and propose compensation mechanism. Methods  The difference evaluation of outpatient expenses, emergency expenses, and hospitalization expenses before and after adjustment of prices was analyzed by the paired samples t test. The influencing factors of outpatient expenses, emergency expenses, and hospitalization expenses before and after adjustment of prices and the degree of their impact were analyzed by the principal component analysis. Results  Outpatient expenses, emergency expenses, and hospitalization expenses were remarkably different before and after adjustment of prices and the importance of each factor changed significantly. The zero-profit medicine policy caused a substantial reduction in hospital’s overall income and surplus and payment imbalance. Conclusion  The zero-profit medicine policy can rationalize the structure of medical expenses, reflect the labor value of medical staff, and effectively ease the contradiction between doctors and patients. However, it is still necessary to develop a series of scientific compensation mechanisms, such as pharmaceutical service fee and reasonably adjusting the charging structure, so as to compensate the payment imbalance and ensure the orderly and healthy development of public hospitals.

Key words: public hospital, zero-profit medicine policy, pharmaceutical service fee, compensation mechanism