ArticleBMC health services research2026
The impacts of public hospital compensation reform on the health workforce compensation and its structure: quasi-experimental evidence in China.
Article in BMC health services research, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe Chinese government piloted the public hospital's compensation system reform in 2017. It is important for policymakers to understand how this reform has affected the health workforce's compensation and its structure. We evaluated the impact of the reform on health workers' compensation levels and structure.
methodsThis nationwide study used panel data from the 2016-2017 China Health Workforce Compensation Reform Survey, covering 102 public hospitals and 111,204 health workers across 15 provinces. A difference-in-differences approach combined with propensity score matching was employed to estimate the reform's impact on compensation and its structure. Primary outcomes were the percentages of base salary and merit salary in total compensation, secondary outcomes included total, base, and merit salary.
resultsFollowing the reform, the percentages of base salary and merit salary increased by 3.54% and 0.53%, respectively. Total compensation, annual base salary, and annual merit salary increased by 1%, 13%, and 5%, respectively. Compensation levels and structure were associated with the average social wages of urban workers, consumer price index, hospital levels, education, nature of employment, qualifications and departments were found to be associated with compensation and its structure. General hospitals showed the largest increase in the percentage of base salary, while specialized hospitals had greater growth in merit salary. The reform also contributed to an increased performance salary structure for contract and short-tenure staff, although it did not significantly improve their total compensation.
conclusionRPHCS has helped reshape salary structures for the health workforce, but has not yet to fully achieved the equity goal of "equal pay for equal work." Policymakers should refine performance evaluation systems and extend base salary protections to vulnerable groups to promote equitable compensation outcome. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.