To provide patients with higher-quality services with a greater human touch is the relentless pursuit of PUMCHers. Considering the perennial gap in quality medical resources, how to help patients register and access the medical services they really need? To address this issue, PUMCH has taken a series of new measures to optimize resource allocation, improve the care-seeking process, increase medical service supply and offer better services, all of which aim at truly satisfying patients.
Hospital-wide Referral Network Built
To mitigate the impact of the “department-centered” approach that requires patients to register for each department they visit separately, PUMCH has launched an outpatient referral system, which enables intra-departmental referral, inter-departmental referral, and referral to a designated physician, and referral from a physician to the “referral post”. Physicians making referrals will write a medical condition summary and state the referral purpose so that the physician on the receiving end can quickly assess the patient’s condition and determine whether it is within his or her area of expertise. Facilitating sharing of resources and information, this in-hospital referral network has effectively addressed the “difficult registration” problem for patients needing services from multiple departments and can better serve patients with difficult diseases that call for multidisciplinary treatment.
Outpatient Capacity Expanded and Examinations and Tests Increased for Weekends
Since the second week of May, all departments, after taking stock of their situation, have gradually taken on more outpatient visits on weekends, and 32 departments have seen a year-on-year growth in their units of outpatient care, and the number of general outpatient visits has doubled over that of 2019. Among them, all internal medicine departments arrange for physicians to provide outpatient care on weekends and increase physician number to around 35% of that on weekdays; surgery departments also respond to the call with great enthusiasm, with department heads and experts taking the lead to increase their availability on weekends and the number of physicians providing outpatient care reaching about 24% of that on weekdays.
Radiology, ultrasound, laboratory and other relevant medical technology departments are also open for weekend examinations and tests and put in place windows for integrated appointment, and blood sampling windows have increased from 7 to 9. In addition, the scope of examinations and tests eligible for the “one-stop” integrated appointment will be gradually expanded and patients will receive intelligent recommendations on the order of appointments to be made, which aim at optimizing and simplifying the care-seeking process for patients.
Services for Elderly Patients Well-received among Patients, and Call Center Hotline Facilitating Communication
On the square east of the outpatient building, there is a volunteer booth where professional volunteers help elderly patients with downloading the PUMCH App, getting to know how to use it, and accessing the green passage for the elderly to enter the hospital. The booth is thus warmly received by patients. For the elderly aged 70 and above, volunteers will do their best to help them with registration. For patients that pay follow-up visits regularly and have visited the hospital within six months, incapacitated disabled patients, and cancer patients seeking follow-up care and already in the chemotherapy stage that fail to make an appointment for their visit, volunteers would note it down and then help them make the appointment after communicating with relevant doctors and obtaining their consent. To provide pre-visit services, the outpatient department has also set up a special call center. Patients can call + 86-01069151188 to inquire about care-seeking policies and procedures and online diagnosis and treatment, which makes the call center a bridge for communication between patients and doctors. If patients want to schedule or reschedule examinations and tests, they can also call this number for help.
Multiple Services Launched for Patient Convenience
Mailing Services: PUMCH now provides mailing services for TCM and herbal medicine, copies of inpatient medical records, drugs, pathology slides for consultation, and video materials.
Integrated Appointment Scheduling and Re-scheduling for Examinations: Appointments for multiple examination items can be scheduled or rescheduled through the call center hotline, the PUMCH App (examination appointment scheduling and rescheduling), in-hospital self-service machines and the integrated appointment making windows on the seventh floor of the outpatient building.
Blood sampling windows open on weekends have increased from 7 to 9.
Professional volunteers are helping elderly people.
Call Center staff are answering callers’ questions.
Reporter: Wang Jingxia
Photo: Sun Liang
Editor: Wang Yao