Ruijin teams up to improve local health services
Ruijin Hospital teamed up with another three hospitals and two neighborhood health centers to set up the city’s first medical networking focusing on rehabilitation services on Saturday.
Patients can receive in-patient rehab at leading medical facilities and more convenient and follow-up services in their neighborhood.
Rehabilitation is key for recovery after surgery and life quality, especially for the elderly.
About 12 to 15 percent of Chinese need rehabilitation, which is in great shortage.
“Many diseases and injuries need a very long and regular rehabilitation process, while leading hospitals can’t meet such demand," said Dr Xie Qing, director of he rehabilitation department of Ruijin Hospital.
"Many resources for rehabilitation in early stage of treatment are mostly in leading hospitals, which don’t have an effective mechanism to cooperate with neighborhood health centers, so many patients don’t know where and how to continue their rehabilitation after being discharged."
To solve the problem and meet the huge demand for rehabilitation, Ruijin has led in setting up guidelines and standards for rehabilitation and allowing patients to receive high-quality service at all levels.
“Our purpose is that patients can receive rehab direction and services soon after surgery in leading hospitals and then afterwards services in the district-level hospitals or neighborhood health centers near their home,” said Dr Chen Erzhen, vice president of Ruijin Hospital.
“Some people can receive simple rehabilitation services at their home.”
The network is working on a trial operation in the Dapuqiao neighborhood health center, whose rehabilitation department is set up by Ruijin.
Medical staff in the neighborhood health center can continue treatments discharged from Ruijin.
After the trial, the practice will be promoted to other neighborhood health centers.
Wu Hong from Shanghai Health Commission said Shanghai has a large number of people aged over 60, about 33.4 percent of total registered population.
“The large number of elderly people have a huge demand for rehabilitation. The new medical network is a new solution to offer people a long-term, regular service instead of short-term service just in a leading hospital,” he said.