Abstract
Background: As a service delivery mode of integrating health care with elderly care has begun to be vigorously promoted in China, it is urgent to carry out studies on the service experience from the perspective of the elderly, to help evaluate and understand the service performance. Different from the existing quantitative research, this study employed qualitative methodology to dig deeper into the influencing factors and functioning mechanism in shaping the service experience of elderly care when integrated with health care, in the Chinese context. Methods: Based on Constructing Grounded Theory, we coded and analyzed the in-depth interview data of 20 elders and 6 management staff recruited from 6 elderly care institutions under the emerging service delivery mode being piloted in Changsha, China. Results: It was found that the service experience of elderly care when integrated with health care is mainly affected by scenario construction, individual cognition and interactive communication. Specifically, the influencing factors can be divided into 9 sub-categories: social foundation, institutional characteristics, service characteristics, psychological characteristics, cognitive ability, understanding and perception, interactive trust, communication and participation feedback. Based on these influencing factors and the functioning mechanism (a total of 9 influencing paths), we proposed a theoretical model of the service experience of elderly care when integrated with health care. Conclusions: Service characteristics, institutional characteristics and interactive trust have direct effects on the service experience of elderly care when integrated with health care, while social foundation, psychological characteristics, cognitive ability, understanding and perception, communication and participation feedback have indirect effects. From the perspective of polycentric governance, to improve the elderly care service experience, the government needs to make overall plans to reduce the cooperation resistance caused by the uneven distribution of interests among different departments. Moreover, the policy network needs to give more attention to the elderly while improving the supply of institutional services.