Tencent and West China Second Hospital Forge Strategic Partnership to Build a Smart Hospital
On August 24, West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tencent, marking the first hospital in China to implement Tencent’s overall “Internet+ Smart Hospital” solution.
In May last year, the Sichuan Provincial People's Government and Tencent signed a strategic cooperation agreement to achieve comprehensive and in-depth collaboration on “Internet+,” with healthcare as one of the key areas of focus.
In June this year, a strategic partnership was established with Tencent at the Tencent "Internet+" Summit. The collaboration primarily focuses on two areas: first, enhancing the foundational infrastructure and operational efficiency of medical services; and second, improving the quality of convenient public services.
WeChat supports appointment registration and in-clinic payment.
As the largest and longest-established Grade A tertiary specialized hospital for obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatrics in Western China, West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University recorded over 2 million outpatient and emergency visits, 50,000 hospital admissions, and 11,000 deliveries in 2015. For a hospital with only 41,000 square meters of clinical space, such high patient density may lead to decreased efficiency in patient care. Issues such as “difficulty in registration” and the “three long waits and one short consultation” phenomenon (long queues for registration, waiting, and payment, but short consultation time) have directly resulted in poor patient experience.
West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University and Tencent have collaborated to build a smart hospital, effectively addressing this issue.
In early August, West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University launched an online WeChat consultation service for patients. By following its official WeChat service account, “West China Second University Hospital,” patients can access online medical consultations, enabling them to consult doctors simply by using their smartphones, which has greatly facilitated patient care.
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According to Chen Guangyu, General Manager of Tencent’s Internet+ Cooperation Division, the two parties will next focus on advancing online medical insurance payments at West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University, leveraging Tencent’s payment and risk control capabilities to ensure convenience and security. For instance, by utilizing WeChat’s real-name authentication and payment functions, medical insurance users can link their social security cards to WeChat and complete online payments for both insurance-covered and out-of-pocket expenses with a single click. This will establish a convenient WeChat-based online payment system and channel for medical insurance, enabling patients in Sichuan to handle hospital visits and payments entirely through WeChat.
Leveraging its extensive user data foundation, mature cloud computing capabilities, and robust social and media platforms, Tencent—supported by its “Internet Plus” core competencies, including Tencent Cloud and WeChat Pay, as well as innovative application upgrades and optimizations—can help further enhance the development of West China Second University Hospital’s smart hospital infrastructure.
It is understood that, through integrated services such as Tencent Cloud and big data analytics, Tencent will provide technical support and cloud-based security assurances to the Medical Consortium of West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University. By integrating the business system data interfaces of West China Second University Hospital and its consortium members, a data-driven management platform will be established to enable unified, centralized cloud-based patient management, mobile diagnosis and treatment, and remote outpatient services, thereby facilitating collaboration among consortium members.
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