Hospital preference in terms of area and grade for treatment in hepatitis B cases in Suzhou, 2014–2018

ObjectiveTo understand the hospital preference in terms of area and grade for treatment in hepatitis B cases in Suzhou from 2014 to 2018 and provide evidence for the rational allocation of medical resources in the prevention and treatment of hepatitis B in Suzhou.

MethodsThe data of the confirmed hepatitis B cases with current address in Suzhou from 2014 to 2018 were collected from the National Notifiable Infectious Disease Reporting Information system (NNDRS), and the data were collated and analyzed by Excel 2013. The medical care seeking flow of the hepatitis B cases in Suzhou was drawn by using the circlize package of R software (version 3.6.1). The Sankey diagram of the medical care seeking flow and hospital grade was generated with the networkD3 package of software R, and the extra-area medical care seeking map of the hepatitis B cases was produced with software ArcGIS 10.3.

ResultsIn hepatitis B cases in Suzhou, 9.74% sought medical cares in hospitals in other cities. 64.24% sought medical cares in local hospitals of the districts or counties. The hospitals in Gusu district were the preference of hepatitis B cases in urban area of Suzhou. The hepatitis B cases in 4 outer counties of Suzhou were more likely to see doctors in hospitals in Shanghai. Up to 73.48% (3 370/4 586) of the hospitals for extra-area medical care seeking belonged to grade Ⅲ (A), while the proportion of grade Ⅲ (A) hospitals for local medical care seeking was 15.67% (1 291/8 237) (OR＝14.91, 95% CI: 13.65–16.29).

ConclusionHepatitis B patients in Suzhou were mainly treated by local hospitals of districts or counties where they lived, while the patients seeking extra-area treatment mainly went to the grade Ⅲ (A) hospitals in Gusu district of Suzhou and in Shanghai.