WeChat, China’s top mobile messaging application is being used to make hospitals more efficient and help improve patients’ overall visiting experience. Improving hospital services is a priority because China’s top hospitals see an average of 10,000 patients on a daily basis.
Outside pressure has had an adverse effect the behavior of doctors, which thereby worsens patients’ experience; some doctors over-prescribe medicine to make more money, some expect bribes to ensure proper treatment and expedite waiting time.
Chinese doctors, on average, make between $500 -$1500 per month, a paltry figure by anyone’s standards considering all the diligent studying and testing they go through. Doctors are known to accept bribes to boost their income.
A WeChat trial is being conducted at YueBei Peoples Hospital in Guangdong that enables patients to view doctors’ information, make various appointments and keep track of where they are in the waiting list. For some senior citizens and other groups who can’t use WeChat, the app also allows others to use the app for them. The hospital offers classes to educate patients on the benefits of using WeChat. Likewise, after payment on the app, patients can submit a satisfaction and feedback survey for future studies.
Developed by China-based Tencent and released in 2011, WeChat is estimated to have over 300 million users, largely due to its functionality and myriad of uses. Among other uses, the application can tap into a machine translation service, exchange contacts with people close by via Bluetooth, and broadcast a message from one source to many listeners.
Photo: WeChat
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