Author(s)

Yu-Hua Yan¹, Chih-Ming Kung², Chen-Luan Lu^3*

¹Superintendent Office, Tainan Municipal Hospital (Managed by Show Chwan Medical Care Corporation), Tainan.
²Department of Information Technology and Communication, Shih Chien University Kaohsiung Campus, Kaohsiung.
³Medical Affairs Office, Tainan Municipal Hospital (Managed by Show Chwan Medical Care Corporation), Tainan.

The purpose of hierarchical medical system is to lead in terms of improving efficiency, differentiating healthcare services and promoting labor division by changing the healthcare seeking behavior. The purpose of this research aims to discuss the public awareness of hierarchical medical system in Taiwan for the reference of health policy makers. We obtained our research data using a questionnaire survey; the total number of qualified patients was 1340. This research finds that more subjects agreed to the hierarchical medical system and medical referral system, but many people still disagreed with changes to their healthcare seeking choices due to policy promotion. Subtle changes, therefore, are observed that imply a crisis in terms of the trust in healthcare. The healthcare seeking behavior will not change if there is a difference between the medical awareness of patients and policy implementation, and the government needs to be concerned with this result when making policies.

Public Awareness, Hierarchical Medical System, National Health Insurance, Primary Health Care

Yan, Y. , Kung, C. and Lu, C. (2019) A Study on the Public Awareness of Hierarchical Medical System in Taiwan. Health, 11, 361-370. doi: 10.4236/health.2019.114032.