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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1476724
This article is part of the Research Topic Innovative Teaching and Learning in Health Education and Promotion View all 12 articles

Exploring the influencing factors of patients sending red packets and the necessity of doctor-patient red packet agreements

Provisionally accepted
Pingli Li Pingli Li 1*Lixiang Wu Lixiang Wu 2Jie Zhang Jie Zhang 3Surong Xiang Surong Xiang 1*Li Fang Li Fang 3*
  • 1 Affiliated Hospital and Clinical Medical College of Chengdu University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
  • 2 West China Fourth Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
  • 3 Air Force Hospital of the Western Theater of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Chengdu, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective To investigate the influencing factors of inpatients giving red packets to doctors and explore the necessity of doctor-patient red packet agreements. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted among inpatients and their families who were hospitalized in several hospitals in Chengdu from January to June 2023. The survey asked about the patients' (or their families') attitudes and opinions on whether it was necessary to give red packets to doctors during hospitalization. Results The vast majority of patients (80.7%) thought that it was not necessary to give red packets to doctors, and 87.0% of patients had never given red packets. 59.7% of patients chose senior doctors as the recipients of red packets, and 90.0% of patients thought that it was necessary to give red packets to doctors in 3A-grade hospitals. Patients’ attitudes towards giving red packets were positively influenced by their education level and previous experience of giving red packets. Conclusions Despite education level and previous experience of giving red packets were all positive influencing factors for patients giving red packets, the proportion of patients who had given or intended to give red packets was relatively low. The majority of patients believed that giving red packets was unnecessary, and they held the view that doctors would not treat them less actively if they didn’t receive red packets. The question of whether signing a red packet agreement is necessary is worth contemplating at this time.

    Keywords: Inpatients, Red packets, Influencing factors, Informal payments, red envelopes

    Received: 06 Aug 2024; Accepted: 26 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Wu, Zhang, Xiang and Fang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Pingli Li, Affiliated Hospital and Clinical Medical College of Chengdu University, Chengdu, 610081, Sichuan Province, China
    Surong Xiang, Affiliated Hospital and Clinical Medical College of Chengdu University, Chengdu, 610081, Sichuan Province, China
    Li Fang, Air Force Hospital of the Western Theater of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Chengdu, China

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