How to choose a variety of medical appointment platforms?

I have already seen a doctor, the doctor has prescribed an inspection list, and after the test report is obtained, do I need to re-register?

When I arrive at the consultation room according to the appointment time, why can't I see a doctor directly and wait?

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Nowadays, the services of large hospitals are becoming more and more refined and intelligent, and people who occasionally go to the hospital will inevitably be a little confused. Recently, outpatient managers of various affiliated hospitals of Fudan University compiled and published the book "Smart Outpatient in the Digital Age", which responds to the questions of the majority of patients in medical treatment, and this article is excerpted. Of course, the specific details of each hospital will be slightly different, but the concept and thinking are the same. Please refer to the interpretation of the hospital for specific rules.

■ Cui Caimei Dong Feng

　　1

How can I accurately find out the opening and suspension information of various specialties and experts in the hospital?

Traditionally, hospitals announce the schedule of specialist clinics in the outpatient hall and the same-day closure. Today, with the comprehensive digital transformation of cities, there are at least two ways to let patients know the information of out-of-visit visits in a timely manner without leaving home:

The first is the appointment system. The appointment must be made with a date, and if you can make an appointment, it means that the department or specialist is on the same day. If the specialist stops for any reason after the appointment, the hospital will also inform the patient by SMS.

The second is a special inquiry system. Most of the hospital's WeChat public accounts have a "Doctor Visiting Inquiry" module, which displays the outpatient scheduling within the hospital's appointment cycle (mostly 2 weeks). This module is directly connected to the hospital number source management system in the background, and the module can be updated in real time if an expert is suspended.

　　2

Can I go to the hospital without an appointment?

Of course, you can, but the experience will be discounted, and it is still recommended to make an appointment. Because one of the current organizational concepts of the clinic is "appointment visit". All our number sources are placed on the appointment platform, so the first problem that patients who do not make an appointment may encounter is that there is no number, the number cannot be hung up on the spot, and the disease cannot be seen. This is a high probability event in the expert outpatient clinic of a tertiary hospital. Even if you hang up the number, the second problem you may encounter is hanging to the back of the number, and the waiting time is too long. Because the previous number has already been booked out.

At present, for different groups of people, including the elderly, the hospital has designed a variety of appointment programs, so it is recommended that patients make an appointment again.

　　3

How to choose a variety of booking platforms?

Making an appointment is a crucial step in getting an effective doctor. At present, most hospitals have multiple appointment platforms. From the perspective of the competent party, the appointment platform is mainly divided into three categories: the first type is self-managed by the hospital, the second is sponsored by the government department, supervised or guided, and the third is created and managed by various companies in the society.

As a hospital self-managed platform (WeChat public account, hospital App, etc.), it has advantages in the number of number of account sources and the length of time to release numbers. Public hospitals generally do a good job in information security, and the prevention of scalpers is also the strictest. Of course, this often makes its registration process not the most convenient, and some even need to use bank account information for authentication. Another outstanding advantage of the hospital App and WeChat service account is that the additional functions are good, such as medical records, electronic medical history, and report query functions.

In Shanghai, the appointment platforms led by government departments are mainly the medical federation appointment platform hosted by Shanghai Shenkang Hospital Development Center and the health cloud app hosted by the Municipal Health Commission. The biggest feature of these two platforms is that all major hospitals in Shanghai can make appointments.

The hospital hopes to have more patients make appointments, so in addition to its own appointment channels and government supervision channels, it will also invite enterprises with a good reputation in the society to join the hospital's appointment work. Most of them also provide appointments from multiple hospitals or even hospitals across the country, which is especially convenient for out-of-town patients. However, these platforms can also bring patients trouble, such as more advertisements and even paid content.

As a reminder: Public hospitals, including third-party platforms that cooperate with public hospitals, are not allowed to charge any fees from patients on the source of appointment numbers. Grasp this key, step on the pit less, do not step on the pit, and make an appointment safely!

　　4

Can I make an appointment for my family and friends in my name?

Some patients reported that "my family helped me make an appointment, why can't I hang up", the hospital learned and found that it turned out that the family made an appointment with their own name, which of course did not work. Once the appointment is successful, the name, identity information, etc. of the appointment patient cannot be changed, let alone "concede" the number to others, otherwise it will be provided to scalpers and trumpet vendors to take advantage of.

However, the parents' mobile phone operation is not favorable, can the children make an appointment on their behalf? Of course.

Generally, appointment platforms support binding of family accounts, and children can bind relevant information of their parents by binding their own registered accounts and then make appointments on their behalf. Pay attention to two points: first, the information of the patient who makes the appointment must be filled in with the patient, not the person making the appointment; Second, once the family account is bound, it is not allowed to be unbound for a long time, which is also out of the consideration of preventing scalpers. At the same time, we also remind everyone not to believe the tricks of scalpers and not to provide personal information to others at will.

　　5

Can I make an appointment for general outpatient clinics and specialized outpatient clinics?

Of course. Major hospitals in Shanghai are not only expert outpatient clinics, but also general outpatient clinics and specialized outpatient clinics can be booked. Statistics show that among all outpatient types, patients in general outpatient clinics have the shortest average waiting time after appointment, so general outpatient appointments are very meaningful.

　　6

I have made an appointment but I can't see a doctor for some reason, how do I cancel it? Is cool dating blocked?

This situation exists objectively, and of course the appointment can be canceled.

The cancellation method is "original path cancellation", that is, which channel the original appointment was made through, but still canceled through that channel. The key is to pay attention to the time point, most hospitals require patients to cancel appointments no later than one day before the appointment date, and do not accept same-day cancellations. This is so that the number source can be withdrawn so that other patients can continue to make appointments.

At the same time, it is not possible to cancel appointments frequently. Some hospitals have corresponding management measures to curb some abnormal behavior.

If you forget to cancel your appointment and do not come to the doctor, the system will judge the behavior as a no-show. Appointment failure is a small waste of one number, a waste of the doctor's time, and from a large point of view, it is a deprivation of another patient's opportunity to see a doctor. Therefore, each hospital has its own no-show management measures. Some are stricter, and there may be corresponding restrictions on a no-show. Of course, patients can also file a complaint, and as long as there is a reasonable reason, the hospital will approve the restriction and the restriction will be lifted.

　　7

If I arrived at the clinic according to the appointment time, why can't I see a doctor directly and wait?

Seeing a doctor is a very special kind of interpersonal communication, and the key is that neither the doctor nor the patient has control over the exact timing of the meeting. The key factor that determines the length of the meeting is the difficulty and complexity of the disease. The more difficult the disease, the longer it takes to see a doctor. The waiting time given at the time of appointment is an average based on a large sample.

In addition, the outpatient volume of major hospitals is huge, in order to improve work efficiency, the number source rule sets a basic principle that doctors receive "efficiency first", so the number source interval will be appropriately tight. In this way, patients often have to wait a little when they arrive at the hospital as scheduled.

　　8

I have already seen a doctor, the doctor has prescribed an inspection list, and after the test report is obtained, do I need to re-register?

This question is often raised by patients, it is difficult to generalize, each hospital has different rules, and it is necessary to distinguish different situations to consider:

In the first case, the patient hangs up in the general outpatient clinic and gets the test report on the same day. In this case, there is no need to register, just return to the consultation area to sign in, and the calling system will call you according to the serial number of the original registration list, and give priority to triage to the original receiving doctor. If the original doctor is not available, it will be randomly assigned to another doctor. This is based on the premise that the general outpatient clinic is open all day. If there is only a half-day outpatient clinic in a very small number of departments, the treatment situation is the same as in the second and third cases.

In the second case, the patient hangs up with the expert outpatient clinic, and gets the test report within the same half day, then the patient also only needs to return to the consultation area to sign in, and the calling rules are also called according to the original registration list.

In the third case, the patient hung up the expert number, but the number registered in the morning, and the report was already in the afternoon. The situation is slightly more complicated. Specialist clinics are often scheduled in half-day increments, and if the morning specialist has finished the clinic, the patient cannot return to the clinic. Patients are generally advised to register for the next clinic with a specialist. If you are really anxious, the patient can go to another general outpatient clinic and ask the general outpatient doctor to give an interpretation report, because the general outpatient number and the expert outpatient number are not connected, and the general outpatient doctor cannot accept the treatment.

In the fourth case, it is the second day since the patient gets the examination report, so whether it is a general outpatient clinic or a specialist outpatient clinic, the patient needs to register separately. Because almost all systems, including appointment systems, doctor workstation systems, etc., take the natural day as a cycle, and once the zero point passes, it is a new cycle.

　　9

There are elderly people in the family who are 75 years old, can they enjoy preferential treatment when they go to the hospital?

OK. According to the document, the state has preferential treatment for some special groups, including the elderly over 75 years old.

The content of priority medical treatment mainly includes five measures: priority registration, priority medical treatment, priority inspection and examination, priority payment, and priority drug collection. For priority registration, payment, and drug collection, hospitals generally achieve this by setting up special windows. Priority inspection and priority treatment require the patient to take the initiative to show and request at the service desk or nurse's station with relevant documents, and only in the patient's own presence, and the situation where the patient is not present such as dispensing drugs cannot enjoy the relevant preferential treatment. Patients who have already booked a time slot or have a test sequence will not be given priority repeatedly.

Prioritizing medical treatment does not mean no queues and zero waiting, but moderate priority. For example, when there are multiple preferential personnel present at the priority medical treatment window, there is still a queue to be required. With the deepening of China's aging, more and more elderly people seek medical treatment, and hospitals cannot allow all elderly people to register and see a doctor directly without waiting. At present, many hospitals have adopted a graded preferential treatment system. For example, for the elderly, 75-year-old, 80-year-old, and 90-year-old age groups enjoy different priority levels, and the elderly over 90 years old have the highest priority. For specific measures, please ask the guide doctor at the consultation desk or the nurse in the consultation area.

　　10

Every time I go to the hospital, I need to queue many times, register queue, pay queue, is there any way to reduce the queue?

This is indeed a pain point for people to seek medical treatment for a period of time. But now, patients can enjoy "convenient medical treatment" if they master a little bit of hospital information service content. If you master the following methods, you can even achieve zero queuing throughout the process.

From the beginning of the appointment, some hospitals can pay the registration fee by mobile phone at the time of the appointment, and some can pay the registration fee online on the day of the appointment, which eliminates the need for queuing at the window.

In terms of payment, whether it is offline medical treatment, or Internet hospital, whether it is medical insurance (electronic medical insurance card needs to be bound), or self-payment, all expenses such as tests and drugs on the day can be paid through the "online payment" function of Internet hospitals, WeChat public accounts, Alipay life accounts, etc. Payment can also save the on-site queue.

For people who are not used to mobile phone operation, there are also some ways to let you queue less or not queue, such as self-service registration payment machines throughout the outpatient area, and some hospitals have carried out in-clinic payment, which can reduce the window queuing.

It should be noted that many hospitals have a rule: self-service machines, in-room payments, etc. do not accept cash payments. If you can only pay in cash, you still need to go to the registration/payment window.

　　11

Why don't hospitals have invoices now? What if an invoice is required for reimbursement, etc.?

Instead of not having invoices, hospitals no longer provide paper invoices and replace them with electronic invoices.

According to relevant documents, hospitals are required to fully implement the reform of electronic bills management of medical charges by the end of 2020, and so far, all medical institutions in the country have implemented electronic bills. Many documents received by patients in the hospital, such as paid statements, have QR codes on them, and they can download and save electronic bills by scanning the QR code. There will also be a link to the electronic ticket on the relevant paid SMS, click to view and download the electronic ticket. Most hospitals also have self-service printers for receipts.

　　12

Do I need to register at the hospital according to the appointment time?

The scheduled examination has completed the payment process for the consultation, and there is no need to register again. However, in order to complete the examination in a more orderly and efficient manner, the general hospital has a "check-in process", just like the need to "sign in" after registering to the consultation area, when arriving at the inspection department, the first step is to sign in at the service desk and register, and then wait for the call. Today, this process can no longer be carried out manually, self-service check-in on the self-service machine, the system will automatically call the number.

In order to further optimize the process, many hospitals implement "time-sharing inspection", which is to divide several time periods according to the appointment time for inspection and examination. For example, the hospital system stipulates that patients can only check in 30 minutes in advance. If patient A's ultrasound appointment time is 10 a.m., and the anxious patient arrives at the B-ultrasound waiting area at 8 a.m., the self-help opportunity refuses to sign in, prompting that the check-in time is after 9:30. This is also to remind patients not to arrive at the hospital too much time in advance, so as to effectively guide patients to triage and ensure the order of treatment.

　　13

Some inspection reports cannot be "immediately desirable", but it is troublesome to run again to get the report, what is a good solution?

Specifically running to pick up the report again is indeed a time-consuming and laborious task. In the past, we would tell our patients to pick up the report at their next visit. It's just that although the patient runs less once, he can't see the test results in time, and his heart is inevitably anxious. Now, the development of information technology allows us to solve this problem well. Not only can the test report be checked on the patient's mobile phone, but some hospital-related images can also be viewed online, and even the patient can share it with others to view. This feature facilitates follow-up visits for patients.

There are several ways to obtain the above services: the first is to register on the hospital's patient service end, including the hospital's App, WeChat service account, Alipay life account, Internet hospital, etc., and then recent medical records, inspection reports, etc. can be queried online. The other is registration on the government regional platform. For example, after registering in Shanghai's Health Cloud App, you can query the medical records in the city, and the relevant imaging functions of the platform have not yet been launched.

(Source: Wen Wei Po The author Cui Caimei is the former director of the outpatient department of Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, the current deputy secretary of the party committee of Minhang Meilong Campus of Shanghai Geriatric Center/Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, and Dong Feng is the director of the outpatient office of Fudan University Cancer Hospital)