Assessing the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of resource allocation effects on patient flow in shanxi's County hospitals, China.

ABSTRACT: China's healthcare system faces significant challenges in resource distribution, with urban tertiary hospitals receiving disproportionate allocations. This imbalance has led to a substantial bypassing of county-level hospitals by rural patients seeking care at centralized urban facilities. This study examines the spatiotemporal effects of resource allocation in county-level hospitals on patient flow distribution between county and urban tertiary hospitals. We analyzed hospital-level data from 2013 to 2019, encompassing 41 tertiary and 189 county hospitals in Shanxi Province. Spatial autocorrelation was assessed using Moran's I, while Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression models were employed to examine the relationship between resource allocation (including physicians, beds, me

SUBMITTER: Liu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12603317 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature