Real-time insurance settlement, paperless medical records, visualized bed scheduling, whole-process electronic surgery anesthesia forms, and 5G smart ward pilot, all examples on a long list of accomplishments, speak volumes about the leap-frog development of the Day Medical Center of West Campus, PUMCH (hereinafter referred to as the Center) despite the havoc wrought by COVID-19. Up to now, the Center has welcomed the arrival of 13 departments, and the percentage of Grade III and Grade IV surgeries has approached 80%. A variety of Grade IV surgeries have been routinely performed at the Center, including breast cancer + sentinel lymph node dissection, radical surgery for unilateral thyroid carcinoma, arthroscopic meniscectomy, and ablation with embolization for hepatocellular carcinoma. Under the premise of ensuring safety, day surgery seeks to improve efficiency and quality to free up more space and time for inpatient surgeries of patients in acute and critical conditions and with refractory and rare diseases. This approach has significantly enhanced people’s sense of satisfaction with healthcare.

The Center now has 66 beds and is equipped with its own day care wards and day surgery rooms. It is now home to 13 departments, namely the Department of Breast Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Gynecological Endocrinology and Reproduction Center, Gynecology, Stomatology, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Otolaryngology, Orthopedics Surgery, Radiology (interventional treatment), Neurology (intrathecal injection treatment) and Anesthesiology (pain treatment). Over the past year, the Center has accumulatively performed over 5,000 day surgeries to treat over 100 types of diseases.

▲Tidy and bright day wards are comfortable and cozy for patients to rest after their surgery

The “short, smooth and fast” day care mode is widely and well received among patients. “In the Center, it only takes 40-50 minutes to perform a breast-conserving surgery under local anesthesia for breast cancer patients or a lymph node biopsy,” said Tang Weiwei, Director of General Office of West Campus.

Higher efficiency isn’t achieved at the cost of medical service quality. Rather, the Center doubles down. The Center has strengthened medical quality control and management, conducted thorough survey and investigations upfront, and developed a strict eligibility assessment program by disease types and surgical procedures.” According to Shen Songjie, head of the Center, the Center can now perform a variety of minimally invasive surgeries such as hysteroscopy, laparoscopy and arthroscopy.

▲The brand-new intelligent day operation room

“We assisted the Department of Medical Affairs in developing a specialty eligibility and a corresponding quality control program, and actively coordinated anesthesiologists and nursing staff to meet the manpower needs of the Center,” said Tan Gang, Deputy Director of the Department of Anesthesiology. The Doctor-nurse Joint Clinic of the operation rooms of the Department of Anesthesiology on West Campus provides one-stop services for day surgery patients, such as perioperative anesthesia and operating room nursing-related assessments, preoperative education and related consultation, which further improves the experience of such patients.

Written by Bai Qinghua, Hong Chengwei and Chen Xiao

Picture courtesy of the General Office of West Campus

Translated by Liu Haiyan

Edited by Wang Yao