Comparing patient care seeking pathways in three models of hospital and TB programme collaboration in China

BMC Infectious Diseases

Table 3 Patient major care pathways, their medical expenditure and delays in the three models of hospital and TB linkages in China

Pathway	The dispensary model				The specialist model				The integrated model
	Cases, N (%)	Average medical expenditure $\bar{x}$ (RMB)	Days of diagnosis delay $\bar{x}$ (M)	Days of treatment delay $\bar{x}$ (M)	Cases, N (%)	Average medical expenditure $\bar{x}$ (RMB)	Days of diagnosis delay $\bar{x}$ (M)	Days of treatment delay $\bar{x}$ (M)	Cases, N (%)	Average medical expenditure $\bar{x}$ (RMB)	Days of diagnosis delay $\bar{x}$ (M)	Days of treatment delay $\bar{x}$ (M)
1.CTD/TDH	10 (10)	3663	11 (2)	5 (1)	1 (1)	2700	11	4	29 (28)	2296	3 (1)	2 (1)
2.PCF → CTD/TDH	12 (12)	3036	102 (30)	6 (1)	6 (7)	2353	25 (16)	0 (0)	16 (16)	2189	6 (2)	1 (1)
3.Hospital → CTD/TDH	52 (52)	5055	15 (2)	9 (1)	22 (24)	10029	8 (1)	20 (15)	46 (45)	2512	12 (2)	3 (1)
4.PCF → Hospital → CTD/TDH	26 (26)	4972	53 (10)	25 (8)	23 (26)	11373	52 (20)	32 (8)	12 (12)	5327	33 (25)	3 (1)
5.Specilaist Hospital*	0				20(22)	9547	2 (1)	-	0
6.PCF → Specialist Hospital*	0				18 (20)	19798	29 (9)	-	0
Total	100	4652	35 (4)	12 (1)	90	11626^a	23 (6)	23 (0)	103	2729	11 (1)^b	2 (1)^c

PCF: Primary care facilities, including village doctor clinics and community health centres or township hospitals.
CTD: county TB dispensaries; TDH: TB designated hospitals.
Hospital: here including general hospitals and TB special hospital, but excluding TB designated hospitals.
* For patients finished their treatment in the specialist hospitals, including pathways from general hospital to the TB special hospital and from primary care facilities to general hospital, then to the TB special hospital.
^a Kruskal-Wallis H test showed that significant difference was found among three models (χ² = 83.268, P<0.001). The specialist model was significantly higher than the dispensary model (P<0.001), and the dispensary model was significantly higher than the integrated model (P = 0.034).
^b Kruskal-Wallis H test showed that significant difference was found among three models (χ² = 17.042, P<0.001).. The integrated model was significantly shorter than the dispensary model (P = 0.001) and the specialist model (P = 0.002).
^c Kruskal-Wallis H test showed that significant difference was found among three models (χ² = 9.283, P<0.001). The integrated model was significantly shorter than the dispensary model (P = 0.024) and the specialist model (P = 0.005).

ISSN: 1471-2334