V Nurse Home Files for IPO: A Didi-Style O2O Platform Connecting Users with Top-Tier Hospital Nurses in Beijing

V Hu Daojia is an O2O healthcare platform that offers on-demand nurse services, allowing users to book nurses for home visits.

Nurses Are Willing to Expand Job Opportunities Through the Internet

Focusing on in-home nursing services for mid-to-high-end households in Beijing, all nursing staff on the V Hu Daojia platform are nurses employed at Grade 3A hospitals in the Beijing area. Currently, these nurses serve in part-time capacities. Li Mingzhu, Founder and CEO of V Hu Daojia, told VCBeat, “We require that nurses providing services on our platform have at least three years of work experience, ensuring they possess substantial expertise and deliver higher-quality care.”

Li Mingzhu stated that, due to the relatively low income of nurses in hospitals, they are inclined to take on part-time jobs to increase their earnings. Around this year’s International Nurses Day, DXY conducted a survey showing that more than half of the 563 participating nurses earned monthly salaries below RMB 4,000. In addition to financial considerations, nurses also seek better career development opportunities for their future. Within a hospital, the highest nursing positions are Head Nurse and Director of the Nursing Department; however, there is only one Director of Nursing per hospital, and the number of Head Nurse positions is also limited. As a result, many nurses are unable to secure promotions.

(Image source: DXY)

Nurses are willing to engage in multi-site practice outside hospitals, but many factors constrain their efforts. For instance, policies governing nurses’ multi-site practice have not yet been fully liberalized; only the Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission issued the “Key Work Plan for Continuously Improving Nursing Services in Guangdong Province” in the first half of this year, encouraging nurses to practice at multiple sites. Additionally, a critical concern is who would bear the liability risk in the event of nursing malpractice after nurses provide care outside their primary hospital setting.

In response, Li Mingzhu stated that if policies on multi-site practice are fully liberalized, V Hu Daojia hopes that nurses will eventually be able to work full-time on its platform. Currently, regarding risk and liability, V Hu Daojia provides nurses with accident insurance and accidental medical insurance. In the future, the company will also offer medical malpractice liability insurance to nurses working through its platform.

Meanwhile, to ensure the safety of nurses during home visits, the platform also provides risk assessment measures such as telephone evaluations and accompaniment on the first visit.

Furthermore, on the V Hu Daojia platform, in order to attract nurses at this stage, the platform allocates all order service fee revenue to the service personnel. It also remains committed to supporting nurses’ long-term professional development, including providing in-service offline professional training and facilitating advanced education through its own channels.

Entering the Market by Providing On-Site Corporate Services

Currently, V Hu Daojia provides customized on-site health examinations, outsourced nursing services, and caregiver training for enterprises and households, respectively.

Li Mingzhu believes that on the V-Hu Daojia platform, the primary payers in the future will be middle-aged and young adults, who will purchase nursing services for their parents. Therefore, V-Hu Daojia has chosen to enter the market directly through enterprises, establishing connections with middle-aged and young employees to build trust in the platform’s services. “Although the elderly are the direct recipients of the services, they may be unwilling to pay for related nursing care,” Li Mingzhu told VCBeat, noting that targeting the primary beneficiaries of nursing services directly is not an appropriate approach.

Currently, V Hu Daojia has provided on-site health examination services to numerous enterprises. “For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), there is a clear demand for such services. They do not need to incur significant costs, nor do they require employees to take half-day leave to queue up for medical checkups,” introduced Li Mingzhu. The health screening packages currently offered by V Hu Daojia include blood tests, electrocardiograms (ECG), blood pressure monitoring, and blood glucose testing. In fact, nearly all monitoring items available in hospitals can be performed through their service, with the exception of X-rays and chest fluoroscopy.

After nurses collect samples at the user’s home, the specimens are sent to partnered Grade A tertiary hospitals, where relevant physicians generate the medical examination reports. Within three days, platform staff will deliver the examination report and the physician’s recommendations directly to the user via the WeChat official account “V Hu Daojia.”

Li Mingzhu, founder of V Hu Daojia, is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Zhuaxia.com and previously served as General Manager of Shanda Literature’s online novel reading platform, bringing years of internet industry experience.

In April this year, Li Mingzhu began planning the project. The WeChat official account was launched in August, and the V-Nurse-to-Home APP is expected to go live in mid-November.

Li Mingzhu candidly stated that naming the product “V Hu Dao Jia” signifies its commitment to providing users with VIP-level nursing care.