The General Office of the National Health Commission ("NHC") has recently issued the Circular on Further Improving the Diagnosis and Treatment Reservation System and Strengthening the Building of Intelligent Hospitals (the "Circular").
The Circular touches upon contents in three aspects. The first is accelerating the establishment and improvement of the diagnosis and treatment reservation system. Hospitals at and above Grade II are required to have in place the diagnosis and treatment reservation system, keep optimizing the diagnosis and treatment reservation procedures, explore ways to enable the reservation of extended services, encourage the establishment of out-patient and in-patient service centers, and launch online patient service centers step by step, in order to constantly improve patient experience. The second is creatively establishing and improving the intelligent hospital system. An intelligent hospital system that integrates medical care, services and management, will be formed through developing "intelligent services", "electronic medical records" and "intelligent management", so as to offer patients higher-quality and thoughtful medical care services in a more efficient and safe manner. And the third is vigorously pushing ahead the development of internet-based diagnosis and treatment and internet hospitals. Efforts will be made to continuously enrich the connotation of online services, ease the pressure on diagnosis and treatment in physical hospitals, and create favorable conditions for epidemic prevention and control and improvement of patient experience.