China enhances reporting of medical data

BEIJING - China has issued a provisional plan to enhance the reporting and management of data from hospitals nationwide.

Hospitals are asked to report data on medical quality and security, medical services and hospital revenue, among others, according to the plan issued by the National Health Commission (NHC).

Hospitals should also report their proportion of revenue from sales of medicines and the use of anti-bacterial medicines and basic medicines.

The plan also asked hospitals to report data related to prescriptions, such as the number of prescriptions on anti-bacterial medicines, narcotic drugs and psychotropic drugs.

Reporting of data on the use of hospital beds is also required.

The collected data could play a big role in the future formulation of medical policies and the bidding and procurement of medicines, the NHC said.