ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Disaster and Emergency Medicine
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1611273
Research on the Construction Strategy of China's Rural Emergency Linkage System from the Perspective of System Theory --Based on the Survey of Six Regions in China
Provisionally accepted
- Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Purpose: This study aims to understand the major challenges facing China's rural pre-hospital emergency care in terms of coordination and cooperation. We focus particularly on the three-tier emergency care providers and their surrounding support units to explore the systematic and strategic gaps within the system. Based on these findings and general systems theory, we propose construction strategies for China's rural emergency linkage system. This research provides new approaches for improving China's overall rural emergency care capacity and offers reference points for rural emergency care development in other countries.We visited 6 rural areas across 5 provinces and municipalities in China (Beijing, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi). We conducted semi-structured interviews with 28 grassroots emergency care personnel, including villagers with emergency care experience, village doctors, village officials, and emergency center staff. Through these interviews, we conducted indepth research on the challenges facing rural emergency care coordination and gathered specific recommendations for improvement.In current rural pre-hospital emergency care practice in China, coordination between different units remains insufficient, and the overall system development is still incomplete. The three-tier emergency care providers lack adequate information sharing, clear division of emergency responsibilities, and personnel exchange. Additionally, social and environmental factors such as funding limitations, compensation distribution issues, and rural transportation planning create barriers to rural emergency care development.The construction strategy for China's rural emergency linkage system consists of two main components: the "emergency central system" and the "emergency peripheral system." The central system focuses on integrating information sharing, medical care coordination, and human resources among emergency care providers. The peripheral system addresses economic support, road and address management, and strengthening emergency transportation capacity. Together, these systems can effectively enhance coordination within the emergency care system and improve the overall effectiveness of China's rural emergency care.
Keywords: Rural China, Pre-hospital emergency care, coordination, Systems Theory, Construction strategy
Received: 15 Apr 2025; Accepted: 18 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Huang, Jiao, Deng, Wang, Hu, Liu and Nie. 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: Wei Nie, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100069, Beijing Municipality, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.