Does competition support integrated care to improve quality?

Introduction: This work investigates the compatibility of integrated care and competition in China and analyses the impact of integrated care on regional care quality (DeptQ) within a competitive framework. Method: The study was built on multivariate correspondence analysis and a two-way fixed-effects model. The data were collected from Xiamen's Big Data Application Open Platform and represent nine specialised departments that regularly performed inter-institutional referrals between 2016 and 2019. Results: First, care quality for referred patients (ReferQ) and the relative scale of referred patients (ReferScale) and competition have an antagonistic but not completely mutually exclusive relationship. Second, ReferQ and competition both have a significant effect on DeptQ, but only when competition is weak can ReferQ and competition act synergistically on DeptQ. When competition is fierce, competition will weaken the impact of ReferQ on DeptQ. Conclusion: Changes in the intensity of integrated care and competition ultimately affect care quality.