Abstract:

Objective To explore main factors that restrict the development of multihospital system in Shanghai and to provide ideas and improvement plans for broader promotion. Methods In-depth interview, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, and Delphi method were adopted to establish the hierarchical structure model of restricting factors of the multihospital system in Shanghai, which consisted of the target layer, criterion layer, and solution layer. The data was analyzed by the Matlab 7.8. Results There were 4 main factors that restricted the multihospital system in Shanghai in the criterion layer, i.e. policy, interest, management, and patient demand. Their weights of contribution to the target layer (smooth development of the multihospital system in Shanghai) were 38.69%, 36.13%, 19.36%, and 5.81%, which meant that more attention should be paid to first 3 factors during the practice of promoting the multihospital system. Meanwhile, although the factor of interest was the second important factor in the criterion layer, 7 of the top 8 elements of the solution layer that contributed most to the target layer were relevant to it. So the factor of interest should be treated as an important factor. The weight of the factor of patient demand was low, which might be relevant to the domination of medical services by suppliers and the unsmoothness of expression channel for interest appeals. Conclusion The factor of interest has become the core element for smoothly developing the multihospital system in Shanghai and is relevant to other three factors. Therefore, it is advised to regard the factor of interest as core driving force, re-establish the operating mechanism of multihospital system at macro and micro levels, consciously pay more attention to the demands of patients, and effectively resolve the problem of inadequate and expensive medical services.

Key words: multihospital system, restraining factors, hierarchical structure model, countermeasures