Shanghai hospitals required to offer reservations in bid to save time

All local city- and district-level hospitals are required to offer reservation services and use different measures to meet patient demand while reducing waiting times, Shanghai's Health and Family Planning Commission said on Wednesday.

Hospitals are required to reserve patients in different time-slots for out-patient services and allow patients to perform all tests at the same time. City-level hospitals are required to accurately make reservation times in one hour blocks and inform patients about the time to save time.

In response to patient complaints that hospitals don't recognize test results from different hospitals, local health authorities have established a unified platform that allows community hospitals and district-level hospitals to share and recognize medical checks.

To deal with long surgery waiting times, Shanghai will enhance day surgery services and gradually expand the percentage of surgeries performed, the commission said.

Intelligent technologies have been widely used to offer reservations, payment services, test result checks and medical bill checks. 

For example, wearable devices are offering long-distance monitoring and guidance to ensure patient safety and information management, officials said.