Abstract:

County medical community reform originated in Anhui province, developed in Shanxi province, and eventually expanded to Zhejiang province. Of all the changes in the field in recent years, it is the most important policy tool for strengthening the primary-level health system after the institution of 2009’s “new medical reform”. As a product of the interactions between local exploration and top-level design, county medical community reform became China’s solution for building an integrated medical and health service system. It has helped improved the capacity of primary-level health services while adding Chinese experience and wisdom to the theory and practice of international integrated medical and health services. The reform’s limitations are mainly due to the incompleteness of the reform, which is the focus and direction of the reform’s next step. The goal now should be to transform the medical community into a health community centered on people's health with medical insurance payment methods as the core mechanism.

Key words: integrated medical and health service system, county medical community, capacity of primary-level health services