Knowledge Sharing in Chinese Hospitals

The aim of this book is to identify, explain and qualify barriers to patient-centered knowledge sharing (KS) between traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine (WM) healthcare professionals in Chinese hospitals. This collaboration is particularly crucial and unique to China since, contrary to Western practice, these professionals work together in hospitals. This study adopted a Grounded Theory approach as the overarching methodology for the analysis of the data collected using a single case- study design. A public hospital in central China was selected as the site of the case study, and 49 participants were interviewed using semi-structured interview scripts. The research findings point to five categories of KS barrier: contextual influences, hospital management, philosophical divergence, Chinese healthcare education and interprofessional training. The research findings identified that philosophical and professional tensions between the two medical communities are the main factors preventing KS and that efforts should be targeted at resolving these tensions. The conclusion advocates the establishment of national policies and hospital management strategies aimed at maintaining the equality of the two medical communities and establishing an interprofessional common ground to encourage and facilitate communication and KS.