Can the Medical-nursing Combined Care Promote the Accessibility of Health Services for the Elderly in Nursing Home? A Study Protocol of Analysis of the Effectiveness Regarding Health Service Utilization, Health Status and Satisfaction with Care.

Background: Currently, segmentation of healthcare and daily care for the elderly living in nursing homes usually results in the elderly not getting medical treatment timely and effectively. The medical-nursing combined care, which has been put into practice in several areas in China, is developed to enhance the accessibility of healthcare for the elderly. The aim of the study is to explore the effectiveness of the new care service, based on Andersen model, regarding health service utilization, health status and service satisfaction.

Methods: The effectiveness of medical-nursing combined care will be measured in a cross-sectional study in nine nursing homes in Jianghan District, Wuhan, China, with 1067 old residents expected to participate. The questionnaire containing items of demographics, health service use, service satisfaction and instrument of SF-36 V2 is developed based on the conceptual framework of Andersen behaviour model of health service utilization. Descriptive analysis, variance analysis, multiple factors analysis, and correlation analysis will be performed to compare the sociological characteristics, health service use, health status and service satisfaction of the elderly living in different modes of nursing homes, to explore the influence factors of care effectiveness, as well as to study the relationship between health behaviour and health outcomes.

Conclusion: The study design of analysing the effects of medical-nursing combined care and performing the horizontal comparison among the nursing homes under the framework of Andersen model is blazing new trails. Recruitment and design of questionnaire are important issues. Successful data collection and quality control are also necessary. Taking these into account, this study is estimated to provide evidence for the effectiveness of medical-nursing combined care service in China.