Effect of public hospital managers’ risk and gain perception on their attitude towards physician dual practice: a cross-national study in 31 provinces of China

BACKGROUND: This study aims to explore the effect of public hospital managers’ risk and gain perception on their attitude towards physician dual practice (PDP). METHODS: A cross-sectional study enrolling 1513 managers from public hospitals in the East, Middle and West of China was conducted. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) were used to identify the determinants of managers’ support for PDP. RESULTS: The rate of managers’ support for allowing PDP or implementing PDP with restriction, was 94.3% (95% CI: 0.93, 0.95). The mean score of managers’ risk perception was 67.7 ± 14.46, and the mean score of managers’ gain perception was 24.0 ± 5.56. After controlling for individual and institutional characteristics, the GLMM presented the score for risk perception increased 1 score and the rate of managers’ support for PDP decreased by 5% (OR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.93, 0.97); while the score for gain perception increased 1 score and the rate of managers’ support increased by 18% (OR = 1.18, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.24). CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that the majority of Chinese public hospital managers are in favor of allowing or implementing PDP with restrictions. Although gain perception is comparatively weaker than risk perception, a stronger influence in determining public hospital managers’ support for PDP is demonstrated.