Hospitalization and its cost of chronic disease patients in rural areas of Gansu province

Objective To analyze hospitalization and its cost of chronic disease patients in rural areas of Gansu provice and to explore key points of chronic disease prevention and treatment among rural residents for the screening of appropriate health technologies. Methods The data on hospitalization and its cost of rural inpatients were collected from medical instutions in Gaolan and Linze county of Gansu province in 2007,and the distributions of disease and cost of the hospitaltzation were analyzed. Results The proportion of inpatients with chronic disease was 37.78% for all inpatients in county-and township-level hospitals.The common chronic diseases for the inpatients were circulatory,digestive,and respiratory system disease. The average daily cost of the hospitalization in county and township-level hospital were 216.15±1.88 and 87.03±1.66 RMB yuan with a significalt difference between the hospitals at different levels(P<0.05);the average costs of per hospitalization in county-and township-level hospital were 2342.39±2.38 and 680.74±1.79 RMB yuan.The main expenditures(76.25%) for hospitalizaton at county-level were surgical expense,medicine fee,and the charge for consultation and those(70.02%)at township-level were medicine fee,operation fee,and bedding fee. Conclusion The patients with chronic disease account for a maior part of inpatients and the costs of medicine and operation are the main factors affecting the expenditure of the inpatients in the countryside.Appropriate health technologies for the treatment of chronic diseases should be promoted.