Objective
To investigate the allocation and management of large medical equipment (LME) in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, in order to make the best use of LME to meet the medical needs of local people.
Methods
The research collected data from all hospitals that have LME in Xuzhou using questionnaire; 38 (97.4%) hospitals returned the questionnaire.
Results
In Xuzhou, there are a total of 71 pieces of LME, each serving 126 600 people in an area of 163 km2. Sixty-two percent of them are allocated in urban areas, with Gini coefficient at 0.52, indicating imbalance and biased allocation of LME.
Conclusion
The allocation of LME in Xuzhou is out of control and unfairly allocated.