a decreasing trendP = 0.579
6 , in the model of inpatient essential drug utilization rate, β 1 was −0.209 (95% CI −0.360 to −0.058, P = 0.008), indicating a decreasing trend in inpatient essential drug utilization before the reform. β 2 value was −1.568 (95% CI −7.299 to 4.163, P = 0.579), and β 3 was 0.068 (95% CI −0.186 to 0.322, P = 0.590), which indicates that the change in the trend of the implementation of the DRG policy on the inpatient essential drug utilization was not significant (Table 2 ).