Clinical appointment-driven service improved in 2017

Medical services, and appointments in particular, have greatly improved in China's major hospitals, health officials said on Feb 7.

All the tertiary hospitals, the top level of the country's three-tier hospitals, have used information technology to carry out clinical reservations, said Jiao Yahui, deputy head of the Bureau of Medical Administration of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC).

Patients feel more satisfied with making reservations for clinical services than with traditional methods of registration, Jiao said.

To facilitate clinical reservations, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning has introduced different procedures such as online reservations, telephone appointments, in-person reservations made at the hospitals and reservations made through offices of medical partnerships, said Gao Xiaojun, a senior official of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning.

As of the end of 2017, the reservation rate for treatment at tertiary hospitals in Beijing reached 61.8 percent, an increase of 3.5 percent compared with that of 2016, according to Gao.

For 22 tertiary hospitals administered by the Beijing municipal government, the reservation rate in 2017 was 86.2 percent, an increase of seven percent compared with a year earlier.

Beijing’s tertiary hospitals are now making outpatient appointments available within a given one-hour period, adding to patients’ convenience, said Gao.

He added that reservation platforms should be established to facilitate as many patients as possible. It’s also necessary to strengthen communication between doctors and patients in case of unavoidable delays.