Remote consultation platform boosts Shandong's healthcare

A remote consultation platform has boosted regional healthcare in the Lin'gang district of Weihai city, located in East China's Shandong province.

The platform bridges the gap between rural clinics and diagnostic centers in Weihai's municipal hospitals, enabling remote imaging and electrophysiological diagnostics.

As a result, patients can now benefit from the convenience of receiving local examinations while accessing expertise from significant hospitals, with around 140 diagnostic reports issued every month.

This hospital in the Lin'gang district has set up an emergency examinations area to facilitate rural residents seeking medical treatment. [Photo by Yang Yan for chinadaily.com.cn]

The Lin'gang district has streamlined healthcare services for patient convenience, allowing patients to receive all the necessary treatments with just one registration. From testing to medication, everything can be done in a single visit and revisited within seven days without extra fees.

To better serve rural communities, the district has provided expert consultations and visits, appointed experts as department heads in clinics and established secondary family doctor teams. It has also enhanced the skills of primary-level healthcare personnel through online nursing training systems and free offline courses.

On the treatment experience side, Lin'gang has proactively collected feedback through open communications channels for outpatient and post-discharge patients. It has also developed local pharmacy and  bidirectional referral pathways, resulting in a 75.9 percent decrease in hotline inquiries. (Edited by Zhou Yunlai)