Paying professional escorts to accompany the elderly to see a doctor
Is the medical escort service reliable?
Our reporter Yuan Lu
At 8 o'clock in the morning, in the Xinjiekou campus of Jishuitan Hospital, the outpatient hall was full of people, and long queues had already formed at the windows for registration, payment, medicine collection, and inspection.
Wang Yang, a post-90s patient escort, walked briskly through the crowd, double-checking the information, and preparing for "seeing a doctor".
In the past two years, the accompanying medical services provided by professional medical escorts have become more active in Beijing, and the market demand for medical escorts has continued to rise.
However, when accompanying people to see a doctor became a business, the current situation of uneven service quality began to trouble consumers.
The scope of responsibilities, access thresholds and service standards of escort services are still to be clarified.
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"Shared nurse" charges 298 yuan for half a day
"I can't ask for leave to accompany the elderly to the hospital on weekdays, but I really don't worry about my mother who has inconvenient legs and feet to go to the doctor alone." Ms. Tang, a white-collar worker, recently made an appointment through the Meituan platform for a "shared nurse" to accompany her mother to the hospital for treatment. After confirming in detail the old man's medical records, medical records, and inspection items that are likely to be needed, the platform assigned Wang Yang, an escort for her, at a cost of 298 yuan for half a day (4 hours).
"For the elderly, the top three hospitals are like a 'maze', and I often meet the overwhelmed elderly in front of the hospital's self-service terminal." Ms. Tang said that the elderly do not know much about the medical treatment process and the distribution of departments, which led to the payment of fees, Inquiries, taking medicines, taking reports and other links often require frequent up and downstairs, tossing back and forth, so she chose to try the escort service.
She said that with the assistance of the escorts throughout the process, the efficiency of medical treatment has been significantly improved, and the medical treatment process that used to take most of the day has been shortened to about 3 hours.
Before engaging in escort consultation, Wang Yang had been a nurse practitioner for 4 years.
"Many people think that accompanying a doctor is to help line up and run errands. In fact, we have a strict workflow." Wang Yang introduced that before seeing a doctor, she would inquire about the customer's medical history in detail, record the doctor's order for family reference when seeing a doctor, and give it to the customer after the end. Read the doctor's order again and summarize the medical record of the day.
If she wants to go to an unfamiliar hospital, she will "step on the spot" in advance and plan the route to see the doctor.
The reporter searched and found that the cost of hiring professional medical escorts is not cheap.
Search for escort services on e-commerce platforms, WeChat mini-programs, etc. This type of service is basically charged for half a day, and the price is basically between 200 and 300 yuan, while the single price of "exclusive VIP escort" delivered by car pick-up Up to 598 yuan.
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Families are most worried about the safety of accompanying clinicians
The number of "shared nurses" employed by the elderly like Ms. Tang is on the rise.
According to the data of Golden Nurses, an internet nursing service platform, from January to August this year, 35% of the orders for escort services in the Beijing area of the platform were for the elderly aged 60 and over.
However, the reporter found in the investigation that many people still have doubts about the safety problems that may occur in the accompanying clinic.
Citizen Mr. Zhang's mother is 72 years old this year. Because of high blood pressure and diabetes, she needs to go to the hospital for regular check-ups and medicines.
Although the escort service sounds attractive, he is still worried that if the mother has an accident during the medical treatment, the person who invites will not be able to respond quickly to solve it.
"The fee for the escort who is backed by the platform is too expensive, but the escort who works alone is not guaranteed. I still think it is more reliable to ask relatives to accompany the elderly to the hospital."
Privacy leakage is another concern that citizens are afraid to try out escort services.
Mr. Yin, a post-90s white-collar worker, said that the process of seeing a doctor will involve a lot of personal information, such as ID number, mobile phone number, social security card number, etc., whether it is to inform the escort or the escort platform, there is inevitably a risk of being leaked or even abused.
As for the service provider, the escorts are also worried about encountering disputes.
Wang Yang shared a story. Last month, a colleague accompanied an elderly man with fractures to the hospital for a check-up. The old man gave 1,000 yuan in cash to him to pay the fee, but when the escort was over, the family said that he gave 1,500 yuan to the colleague. Complain to the platform.
"It is not easy for both sides to build trust in a short period of time."
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Innovative medical services need to cross the "normative threshold"
According to the seventh national census data, my country's population aged 60 and above is 264 million, accounting for 18.7%.
As the aging of the population continues to increase, the market demand for escort clinics is gradually being released. However, because the industry is still in the early stage of development, the service quality of different platforms is uneven, and the scope of responsibilities, access thresholds and service standards in escort clinic services are still To be clarified.
"We also hope that the industry will be more standardized and avoid extreme cases that cause consumers to distrust the entire market." said Sun Jing, deputy director of the Nursing Quality Control Department of Gold Medal Nurse.
Pan Helin, co-director of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of Zhejiang University International Business School, said that the escort service is a medical service innovation and still needs to cross the "normative threshold".
"First of all, the industry should distinguish between professional escorts and non-professional escorts. Professional escorts without nursing qualifications are not allowed to work, and non-professional escort service personnel must also pass examinations to obtain professional qualifications. At the same time, escort practitioners need to establish integrity. If there is any violation of the file, it should be included in the industry blacklist.” Industry experts also suggested that, in order to avoid disputes, the platform can help solve the problem of medical malpractice that may occur in accompanying doctors by purchasing insurance for both doctors and patients.