(People’s Daily Health Client Zhao Mengmeng) On June 1, the National Health Commission formulated and issued the “Interim Regulations on the Quality Management of Outpatient Clinics in Medical Institutions”, which will come into force on June 6, 2022. The “Regulations” pointed out that medical institutions should improve the work efficiency of medical technology departments, shorten the waiting time for appointments for inspections, endoscopy, ultrasound, CT, MRI, etc., and issue inspection and inspection reports within the specified time limit, and promote the mutual recognition of inspection results. shared.
Beijing MRI appointment for up to three months
“Due to frequent dizziness and headaches, I am worried that it is a precursor to cerebral infarction, April 22 The MRI of the brain that I went to a tertiary hospital in Beijing for an appointment on May 13 was scheduled for nearly three weeks.” Zhang Ran (pseudonym), who lives in Xicheng District, Beijing, told the Health Times reporter.
Li Hongjun, deputy director of the Department of Imaging of Capital Medical University and director of the Radiology Department of Beijing You’an Hospital, is reading the film
Health Times reporters have previously learned from large hospitals in Beijing and Shanghai that it is not uncommon for patients to be examined like Zhang Ran’s situation.
In March this year, a Health Times reporter randomly surveyed many hospitals in Beijing and Shanghai and found that the appointment time for MRI in the top three hospitals in the two places was about 20 days, and the longer time required to wait for more than 3 months. Like painless colonoscopy, the waiting time can be as little as a few months, as much as half a year, or even a year and a half at the longest. There are also queues for inspections on the day, sometimes even from morning to evening.
In the 2021 outpatient satisfaction survey of public medical institutions in Shanghai, among the 4542 patients with outpatient gastroenteroscopy, ultrasound, CT and magnetic resonance examinations, 84.37 of the 4542 patients had examination appointments less than 7 days %, 6.01% of the outpatient examination appointment time is 14 days or more, especially the proportion of patients with outpatient imaging examination appointment time of 14 days or more in tertiary specialized hospitals reaches 11.03%. The long waiting time for outpatient imaging and other examinations has become one of the three major problems that affect patient satisfaction and need to be solved urgently.
The shortage of radiologists is huge, and the talent gap is as high as 700,000
Why does it take more than 20 days to queue for MRI? Li Hongjun, deputy director of the Department of Imaging of Capital Medical University and director of the Department of Radiology of Beijing You’an Hospital, told the Health Times reporter, “Radiologists are so busy every day that they often don’t even bother to eat. The time for MRI examinations depends on the patient’s examination. It varies from ten minutes to more than an hour depending on the location and the inspection requirements. For example, head scan, thoracic and lumbar spine examinations, each part takes about 10 minutes. If enhanced scanning is required, the inspection time will be increased by 5-10 Minutes. A doctor can only treat an average of 20 patients a day.”
In addition, the recruitment of radiologists has always been a problem for hospitals, especially at the grassroots level. Li Hongjun sighed, “It is difficult for graduates with a master’s degree in clinical majors to find jobs in Beijing, but there is a shortage of graduates with a master’s degree in radiology in Beijing’s recruitment market. The shortage of radiology professionals is evident.”
According to the data of the 2017 Chinese Medical Doctor Association’s Annual Meeting of Radiologists, there are about 158,000 radiology practitioners in the country, of which there are only about 86,300 radiologists, and only 20,000 have the title of deputy chief physician or above. According to data released by Lilac Talents in March 2020, the imaging department is currently the department with the largest shortage of doctor resources in my country, with a talent gap of up to 700,000.
Mutual recognition of examination results in tertiary hospitals should be achieved first
How to solve the problem of long queues for imaging examinations? “For example, the level of the top three hospitals in the country is comparable, and they can first recognize each other, secondly, the second top hospitals in the country recognize each other, the lower-level hospitals recognize each other’s higher-level hospitals, and the medical consortia recognize each other.” Li Hongjun believes, “Not all patients have to go to the hospital. A third-grade hospital is lined up, and like CT and MRI, it can be carried out in hospitals above the second level. If the waiting period is too long in some hospitals, the patient can go to the lower-level hospital with fewer people for examination first, and then go to the upper-level hospital for re-examination if problems are found. However, to achieve mutual recognition, we must first ensure that the technical specifications and consistency of scanning are implemented, and that the diagnostic results can objectively and accurately reflect the patient’s lesion results.
In fact, the mutual recognition of inspection results is China has been brewing for many years. The Health Times reporter inquired that the National Health and Medical Commission and other institutions have issued documents as early as 2006, 2012, December 2020, July 2021, November 2021, and February 2022. In-hospital test results are mutually recognized.
“In order to reduce the waiting time for patients, the doctors in our hospital outpatient clinic usually check whether there is a previous beat. If the shot is clear, it has reference value, and there is no need to repeat it. examine. “Li Hongjun said.
Health Times reporters found that at present, Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Yunnan, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places have taken the lead in carrying out the mutual recognition of inspection results in provinces (cities).< /p>
However, in order to achieve mutual recognition of test results, there are still many problems to be solved. Wang Guiqi, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and director of the Endoscopy Department of the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, once said in an interview with Health Times, “Some grassroots hospitals have The performance of equipment, quality of results and inspection level cannot be compared with tertiary hospitals for the time being. Moreover, the inspection equipment, medical equipment, and testing level of each hospital are not the same. Second, many tests in the laboratory are very short-lived. It is unreliable to rely solely on the original data and inspection reports. “Real mutual recognition will take some time.