Guest
Chen Lei
Interview Background
In 2024, the Health Commission of Jing'an District earnestly implemented the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, and President Xi Jinping's important speech during his inspection of Shanghai. The Health Commission deeply practiced the concept of "A people-first city is built by the people and for the people", comprehensively promoted the high-quality development of health services, and continuously enhanced the people's sense of health gain to achieve the goal of providing not only accessible and effective healthcare but also more comfortable and considerate services.
Host:
Hello everyone, today we have the Director of the Health Commission of Jing'an District, Chen Lei, as our guest. Welcome, Director Chen!
Chen Lei:
Hello, host. Hello, everyone.
Host:
In 2024, the Health Commission of Jing'an District earnestly implemented the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, and President Xi Jinping's important speech during his inspection of Shanghai. The Health Commission deeply practiced the concept of "A people-first city is built by the people and for the people", comprehensively promoted the high-quality development of health services, and continuously enhanced the people's sense of health gain to achieve the goal of providing not only accessible and effective healthcare but also more comfortable and considerate services. Today, I would like to discuss a few key points with you.
Host:
The first keyword is "convenience", referring to the "15-minute medical service circle" that ensures the health conditions of local residents.
Chen Lei:
Currently, we are coordinating the entire district's health system. We have basically formed a medical service circle accessible within a 15-minute walk. It is convenient for residents' daily health needs. In recent years, the Health Commission has aimed to improve the convenience of medical care for the public. We have optimized the layout of community health service points and implemented various measures to enhance the construction of community health service facilities and provide convenient medical services for the residents.
Host:
Could you please elaborate on this?
Chen Lei:
Okay. In terms of medical supply, the Health Commission now has one district-level tertiary hospital, 10 secondary hospitals, 15 community health service centers, and 86 community health service stations, meeting the national standard of one facility per 10,000 people. This ensures that residents can reach a community health service center or station within a 15-minute walk. Besides, we keep optimizing some community health service centers by bettering their locations, making renovations and expansions, and adding more beds. Through such efforts, we strive to create a more accessible "15-minute health service circle".
Chen Lei:
In terms of drug supply, the Health Commission has improved community drug provision through multiple channels, establishing a holographic drug distribution network for residents. Originally, community health service centers, as primary medical institutions, mainly provided basic drugs. The Health Commission has used big data to analyze the common drug needs of residents. It has implemented a unified drug directory, procurement, distribution, payment, and service, known as the "five unifications". Currently, the district's Cloud pharmacy is equipped with over 1,200 types of drugs. All 15 community health service centers have opened pharmacy clinics to provide medication guidance for patients with geriatric diseases, chronic diseases, and those requiring multiple medications. This model was awarded one of the "Top 10 Innovative Measures for Medical Reform in Shanghai" in 2023.
Host:
Please introduce us to the "Five Beds Collaboration".
Chen Lei:
To further meet the needs of an aging urban area, the Health Commission has actively entered the required elderly care facilities through the "Five Beds Collaboration", collaborating with the Civil Affairs Bureau of Jing'an District to deeply promote the integration of "three beds" for medical care and "two beds" for elderly care. Through the interoperability of medical information systems, the introduction of rehabilitation and traditional Chinese medicine projects, and the initiation of inpatient site pilot projects, we are steadily advancing the deep integration of family beds, institutional elderly care beds, and home-based elderly care beds to meet the actual needs of elderly care and medical care.
Chen Lei:
The Jing'an Health Center for the Aged, currently under construction, plans to introduce the outpatient department of the Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Shanghai Fourth Rehabilitation Hospital, and socialized elderly care institutions. It aims to explore and establish a comprehensive elderly service platform integrating medical care, nursing, and rehabilitation, and form an integrated health service system with combinations of medical care and elderly care, medical resources and endowment resources, and traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine.
Host:
The second keyword is "quality".
Chen Lei:
We aim to provide high-level regional health services and promote the high-quality development of district-level medical institutions. Our goal is to create public hospitals with top-notch medical technology, solid medical quality, efficient medical services, refined hospital management, and high satisfaction. The Health Commission has established a "3+2+1" tight-knit medical treatment alliance in Jing'an. The district health authority delivers smooth management and planning on the tertiary hospitals, secondary hospitals, and several community health service centers, ensuring a reasonable allocation of regional medical resources.
Host:
Could you provide a specific example?
Chen Lei:
Okay. For example, the Southern Medical Alliance, with the Jing'an District Central Hospital as a key force in the hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system, relies on the high-quality resources of Huashan Hospital Affiliated [ZL1]to Fudan University and radiates to the surrounding community health service centers. All units within the medical treatment alliance conduct homogeneous management, facilitate two-way referrals, resolve payment issues, upgrade the number system, and achieve interoperability of information data within the medical treatment alliance. The goal is to build a scientific, appropriate, and continuous hierarchical diagnosis and treatment service within the medical treatment alliance. This well-organized medical treatment alliance model has twice been awarded the title of "National Demonstration Unit for Improving Medical Services" by the National Health Commission's Department of Medical Administration and was recognized as one of the "Top 10 Innovative Measures for Shanghai Medical Reform" in 2022.
Chen Lei:
The Jing'an District Central Hospital has experienced significant development in various aspects over more than ten years of continuous empowerment through the medical treatment alliance model, evolving from receiving assistance to achieving self-improvement. In terms of specialty construction, a landmark was achieved in June 2024 when the Department of Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery of the Jing'an District Central Hospital was recognized as a national clinical key specialty. It is the only one in the central urban area of Shanghai and the first national key specialty in Jing'an's district-level hospitals. It also shows a new level of clinical research in Jing'an. The hospital also has one key specialty under the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, seven key specialties in Shanghai, and eight key specialties in Jing'an District. Lu's Traumatology and Dong's Pediatrics are listed as the intangible cultural heritage and the traditional Chinese medicine inheritance base in Shanghai, respectively. Besides, the number of key specialties at the municipal level or above in the hospital ranks among the top in Shanghai among hospitals of the same class and type. In terms of scientific research, since scoring its first national projects in 2016, the hospital has had 15 projects financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, seeing the number of its SCI papers published increasing year by year. It has become a core unit of the National Clinical Research Center on Geriatrics, a branch center of the Shanghai Key Clinical Medical Center (Limb Reconstruction Center), and a National Drug Clinical Trial Institution (GCP), undertaking multiple national key research projects.
Host:
These landmark achievements in medical treatment alliance construction are a microcosm of Jing'an's commitment to new quality productive forces, reform and innovation, and high-quality development.
Chen Lei:
Yes. Currently, Jing'an has fully covered the construction of the medical treatment alliance. The southern, central, and northern regions are developing collaboratively, forming a regional medical service system integrating medical management, operational management, information management, and scientific research and teaching. The Jing'an District Central Hospital successfully became an affiliated hospital of Fudan University in 2017 and was designated a tertiary hospital in 2020. It has successfully brought high-quality health services equivalent to tertiary hospitals to the residents. The Jiangning Road Sub-District Community Health Service Center is the only high-quality development pilot in Jing'an and the first community to complete all functions of digital transformation. It has cooperated with multiple municipal, district, and specialty hospitals, opening over 20 expert specialty clinics. It has distinctive programs that are popular among residents, including multiple grassroots workstations for Shanghai's famous traditional Chinese medicine studios, Shi's Traumatology, Demonstration Rehabilitation Center, MDT, and Osteoporosis Clinic. When experts visit, the center arranges technical backbones to learn from them and enhance their medical skills, thereby better serving and benefiting the community residents.
Chen Lei:
Using this as a reference, we are comprehensively promoting the high-quality development of community health services in Jing'an. Each community health service center, based on its actual situation, actively develops common and chronic disease diagnosis and treatment functions, specialty disease treatment, rehabilitation medicine, functional medicine, and traditional Chinese medicine specialty capabilities. Currently, each community has established eight municipal-level grassroots service stations for famous traditional Chinese medicine studios, six municipal-level exemplary community rehabilitation centers, one nursing center, two standardized community dental clinics, and two hospice care bases. We are now fully launching the construction of health management centers.
Host:
The third keyword is "efficiency".
Chen Lei:
We have actively developed "smart healthcare", building a new model of smart hospitals to comprehensively enhance the medical experience for citizens.
Host:
Could you provide some examples?
Chen Lei:
Relying on the "Healthcare in Jing'an" platform, we have built an integrated sharing platform for medical institutions, public health institutions, and communities. For three consecutive years, Jing'an has won first place in the Shanghai "Convenient Medical Services" digital transformation demonstration area selection. We have taken the lead in completing the self-built scenario construction of convenient medical services 3.0, achieving full coverage of functions for 26 district-level medical institutions. We have pioneered a regional "smart medical assistant", realizing dual "cloud accompaniment" and "no need to wait for film collection, view and share on mobile phones at any time". We have established a digital transformation "experience team" to periodically experience digital processes on-site, identify bottlenecks, and optimize functions, creating an immersive digital health service centered on residents. Besides, we have expanded the Internet hospital "Cloud" pharmacy directory. With the help of the "Healthcare in Jing'an" platform, we have achieved community medical insurance settlement, online prescription circulation, drug warehouse delivery, and logistics tracking to households, saving on drug expenses and delivering drugs to homes. We have achieved "no worries about seeing a doctor with a phone in hand".
Host:
Could you share your vision for the future?
Chen Lei:
Health is an indispensable part of people's need for a better life. By the end of 2025, Jing'an aims to build an integrated medical service system that aligns with its functional positioning as an "international and excellent urban area", featuring complete systems, clear divisions, complementary functions, close collaboration, efficient management, and orderly supervision. Chinese modernization will be a comprehensive modernization across all fields and industries. Under the guidance of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, the Jing'an District health system will comprehensively deepen medical and health system reforms to promote the high-quality development of health services. This will continuously upgrade the health experience for residents and lay a solid health foundation for Jing'an to build an urban area model with Chinese modernization.
Host:
Thank you for your sharing! Today's interview comes to an end here. Everyone, bye!
Chen Lei:
Thank you, bye!