Information sharing among medical institutions at the municipal and district levels in Shenzhen is expected to be made possible by the end of 2020, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported Thursday.
This will pave the way for hospitals to use examination results from other hospitals, reducing the amount of repeated checkups currently required when patients seek treatment at a different medical institution.
Over 10 deputies to the Municipal People’s Congress (MPC) met with the relevant heads of the city’s development and reform commission, the finance bureau, the health commission, the health-care security bureau and other government departments Wednesday morning. The deputies proposed suggestions on medical informatization.
According to MPC deputy Chen Jinhua, at present, the sharing of medical examination results has been basically realized among public hospitals in Shenzhen, but has yet to be comprehensively achieved among hospitals at the municipal and district levels as well as community health centers.
Chen said as the information system used by each hospital is different, so there are differences in information criteria between hospitals.
The city’s health commission has responded by saying the city is currently piloting information sharing at certain hospitals at the municipal and district levels, but there are still some technical barriers to overcome as the information systems originally developed and applied by some hospitals at the district level are old-fashioned.
The commission will formulate information criteria as soon as possible and strive to achieve data sharing among hospitals at both levels by the end of next year.
MPC deputy Hu Ping is concerned about mobile payment for medical insurance fees. Hu said the service is only available at a few large hospitals but not at most community health centers, which causes inconveniences to many citizens.
In response, the Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau said more hospitals will be included in the mobile payment system for medical insurance. The city’s health commission also indicated that many hospitals in the city have provided online payment services for medical insurance fees, and community health centers will gradually begin offering the service.