Author: reporter Qiu Yue
"Guangming Daily" (page 15 on April 21, 2022)
【Economic interface】
"The old man suffers from rheumatism and has difficulty moving, and his children cannot come back from other places, so he entrusted us to accompany the doctor." Early in the morning, Xiao Zhang, who was working as an "accompanying doctor" in Zhengzhou, went to pick up her client, Mr. Li.
Picking up the registration number, taking blood tests, MRI examinations... Xiao Zhang pushed Uncle Li up and down, and he was already familiar with this hospital.
After more than two hours, Mr. Li was very satisfied with the service and praised the whole process.
After sending Uncle Li home, Xiao Zhang has to take the examination report form, conduct online consultation with the doctor, prescribe medicine and mail it to his home. The work of one order is not over.
This is the work content of "accompanying doctors", which is officially defined as "community health assistants".
In recent years, this profession has suddenly become popular. Some people say that it has solved social pain points, and some people say that it is a mixed bag.
Why does such a profession cause so much controversy?
What will be the future development space?
1. Not just running errands and registering
As a new occupation, "Community Health Assistant" has been officially written into the occupational classification by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in 2020.
It is said to be a new profession, but this so-called "accompanying doctor" has existed for at least ten years ago.
Providing patients with assistance services such as appointment registration, payment, medicine collection, and hospitalization procedures is just the "tip of the iceberg" of this profession.
In fact, community health assistants can also provide many professional services. In the definition of occupational classification, community health assistants use health and Internet knowledge and skills to engage in community health file management, education and training, medical treatment, health care consultation, Agents, escorts, and personnel dealing with public health events.
"Many people say that we are just queuing up and running errands, but that makes us small." From a realistic point of view, the emergence of professional escort clinics really stems from social "pain points" that cannot be ignored.
The elderly, pregnant women, minors, and disabled people need someone to accompany them to see a doctor. If family members do not have time, they must ask for help.
Some hospitals are getting bigger and bigger, departments are more and more subdivided, and all kinds of equipment are becoming more and more "unmanned". There is a familiar process for registration, consultation, inspection, payment, and medicine collection. Accompanying the clinic can save a lot of time.
According to Zou Yunjuan, the brand director of "Golden Nurse", the escort is not only a simple matter of accompanying a doctor, but also a technical task.
"Our professional nurse escorts can not only help patients run the process and save patients' time for consultation, but also inform patients about the precautions before seeing a doctor and improve the efficiency of consultation. At the same time, based on their own medical knowledge background, nurses can also give patients a professional perspective. Provide medical guidance, interpret medical orders for patients, and become a bridge for effective communication between doctors and patients." Zou Yunjuan said.
Wu Liuxin, former chairman of the Chinese Medical Association Health Management Branch and president of Zhongguancun Xinzhiyuan Health Management Research Institute, said that community health assistants, as an important link between consumers and medical professionals in the health industry chain, will help improve medical care. The efficiency and quality of health services, accelerating the construction of health informatization and information sharing, to a certain extent, also act as a mediator between doctors and patients, and promote the formation of China's community health service system.
In addition, experts also pointed out that for the hospital, it is not possible to leave the guidance of doctors to the society and the escorts.
At present, in some hospitals, the more "intelligent" the equipment is, the less friendly it is, and the more "unmanned" the process is, the more cumbersome it is.
In fact, a mature hospital should have barrier-free facilities for the disabled and an appropriate aging process for the elderly.
2. The market has great potential but has not been fully explored
Statistics show that the number of elderly people living alone and empty nesters in my country has reached 118 million, and the number of disabled people has exceeded 80 million.
However, the number of doctors and guides in the hospital is limited and cannot provide more detailed services for patients.
In contrast, the potential market for medical escorts is indeed not small.
"For the elderly, we provide medical escort, family nurse, home nursing, home rehabilitation, health assessment and guidance, traditional Chinese medicine physiotherapy and other services. The disabled and semi-disabled elderly and the elderly have solved the inconvenience of going to the hospital, so that the elderly can be accompanied by someone when they go to the hospital to see a doctor;
However, the reporter found that the current consumer demand for this service is not stable.
"Although one order can earn two or three hundred, or even several hundred, it is common to fail to receive orders for a few days." Xiao Zhang told reporters that many people working in this profession are part-timers.
During the interview, the reporter found that although most patients recognized this industry, there were still a small number of people who actually placed orders for consumption.
The reasons include many aspects: First, many people feel that the services of hospital guides and volunteers have met their needs, and many hospitals are now providing better and better medical guide services; second, patients, especially some elderly people, have different consumption concepts, and many People feel that it is not worth spending a few hundred yuan for half a day.
More importantly, the current service level of the escort industry is uneven, and this new format still faces many problems.
For example, there is a lack of relevant industry norms, norms, standards, etc., the entry threshold, service content and charging standards of service agencies are still unclear, and the qualification level and professional ability of employees are uneven.
Especially at present, e-commerce is widely involved, which easily leads to disorderly competition, willful pricing, frequent disputes, etc., which makes people want to buy escort services, but also worry about encountering scammers, whether the cost is worth the money, and whether there is any medical privacy. A series of practical problems, such as possible leakage, and how to clarify the responsibility for unexpected accidents in accompanying clinics.
Liu Jianjun, head of the compilation team of the National Vocational Skills Standards for Community Health Assistants and dean of the China United Research Institute, said that in terms of industry norms, relevant departments are advised to follow the national teaching materials of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on the basis of the promulgated national vocational skills standards. The content of the textbooks organized by the office, with reference to the development model of the nursing industry, timely formulate relevant industry standards and norms, clarify the scope of responsibilities, employment requirements, service content and charging standards, etc. At the same time, strengthen management, orderly guidance, and improve complaint acceptance, responsibility mediation, etc. Accountability mechanism to achieve effective guidance and supervision of escort institutions and platforms, avoid bad violations such as sitting on the ground, false escort, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of patients and their families.
3. Low threshold and lack of high-quality talents coexist
On social networks, on the one hand, many young people are very interested in this profession, but they suffer from no entry channel.
On the other hand, some practitioners feel that the threshold for this industry is too low, the industry is mixed, and there is a shortage of high-quality talents.
According to the survey of "New Occupation-Analysis Report on the Employment Prosperity of Community Health Assistants", most of the employees of community health assistants are mainly technical secondary school and vocational high school, accounting for 47.29%, and the employees with a college degree account for 26.59% In addition, 21.34% of other employees graduated from junior high school and below, and the employment threshold for community health assistant employees is relatively low.
Zou Yunjuan told reporters that practitioners still need to maintain professionalism and professionalism. If the service level is too poor, or if they sell products to patients and their families during the service process, and make extra charges, they will eventually destroy the profession. Avoid the former number dealers and medical trustees from being transformed into the vests of escorts and use their own advantages to obtain improper benefits.
Liu Jianjun said that at present, the medical escorts are institutional practitioners and freelancers coexisting, with uneven quality and level, and professional nursing knowledge and medical knowledge need to be improved urgently.
There can be no ambiguity on major issues related to people's life and health, and standard and standardized business skills training must be implemented to ensure that practitioners meet the requirements of the occupation.
In terms of practitioners, the business qualifications of existing escort institutions should be strictly reviewed to ensure that they establish a systematic, professional and standardized service process, especially when addressing the needs of diverse patients, fully respect and protect the medical treatment of patients with good illnesses privacy.
For individuals, community health aide is a new career option with a wider range of employment options.
Experts said that with the deepening of aging and changes in the concept of public health, the employment of community health assistant talents will become more and more extensive. Not only community hospitals, rural clinics, and urban hospitals need new professional practitioners, beauty institutions, Physical examination institutions, childcare institutions, pension institutions, community properties, enterprises, schools, buildings, units, shopping malls and other public service places also need relevant professionals. The employment scope of new occupations is wider and there are more employment options.
Liu Jianjun said that the establishment of a new occupation is an affirmation of practitioners in the field of community health at the national level. In the future, relevant departments will standardize and continuously improve the theoretical knowledge system and skills of practitioners in this occupation, which is conducive to promoting community health. The development of management and the cultivation of industry talents will promote national health actions.
(Reporter Qiu Yue)