Information-Driven Integrated Healthcare: An Analysis of the Cooperation Strategy of County Medical Community Based on Multi-Subject Simulation

Abstract

The fragmentation and uneven quality of primary medical resources in China call for a deepening of integrated healthcare reform. China is promoting its county medical community (CMC) reform on a large scale in county-level administrative regions to promote the integration of local primary healthcare systems through information technology, which is consistent with the current trend of the digital governance era. Considering that the construction of a county medical community involves collaborative relationships between multi-level subjects, the evolutionary game theory was adopted in this study to construct a game model between the lead hospital of a CMC and primary healthcare institutions, and then the incentives of government department support were introduced to analyze the behavioral evolution of these three subjects. Taking into account the uncertainty of the real-life environment and information transformation, white Gaussian noise was introduced as a random disturbance term, and a numerical simulation was performed. In the two-subject model we focus on four parameters: information and management authority ceded by the primary healthcare institutions, integration coefficient of CMC information construction, intensity factor of information integration in the CMC, and medical resources delivered by the lead hospital. In the three-subject model we focus on three parameters: information and portion of authority ceded by the primary healthcare institutions and government departments, policy effect coefficient of CMC construction, and intensity of government departments’ support for CMC construction. The simulation results show that there is a positive incentive for the concession of management power and information from the primary healthcare institutions to the lead hospital, but further determination of empowerment boundaries is needed. The lead hospital can improve the balance of medical resources in the county through the downward transfer of medical resources, but long-term resource delivery may inhibit the enthusiasm of the lead hospital. An improvement in the information integration intensity of the CMC can promote the efficient flow of information and knowledge and enhance the organizational closeness of the county medical community. At the same time, the integration of CMC information construction reduces the cost of collaboration among medical community members and streamlines and consolidates business modules, which can promote more efficient use of medical resources. The government departments’ policies and funds provide obvious incentives to the lead hospital and primary healthcare institutions, but there is a need to explore appropriate financial payment ratios to balance the government’s financial pressure.