Wednesday was my favorite business visit yet. As Health Care Management major, it was interesting to see some of the behind-the-scenes in a potential facility I may be working at in the future. The hospital was very nice and still fairly new, built in 2003. The hospital focuses on therapy to cure cardiovascular diseases and specializes in cardiovascular open-heart surgery. What amazes me is how fast technology continues to grow. The hospital is entirely paperless with their Hospital Information System (HIS). It's an information systems card that is given to each patient and has a database full of patients' medical history, current medications and condition, and every other importance piece of data or information. This system is a genius idea, I believe. Being paperless obviously avoids the loss of paperwork. It also ensures more privacy for each patient, and it's quick and easy for the hospital to use. I think it also monitors the prescribing of medication, controlling things such as overprescribing, which is very common in the U.S. While touring the hospital we viewed the V.I.P. room. I have no idea if the U.S. even has a V.I.P waiting room, but I thought that was kind of crazy! It was a smaller, more comfortable atmosphere for wealthier patients to wait in. Next we saw how the medicine is packaged. They have a machine that packs each patients' medication in separate packages to assure they're taking the right pill, and the right amount of that pill each day. I think it was neat that they do that, as opposed to the U.S. that uses the capsule container and each patient is responsible for their medication intake. My grandpa right now is in critical condition and gets confused each day what pills he hasn't and has taken. If someone isn't monitoring him, his medication intake can get really messed up. I think the way this Chinese hospital packs pills is a great idea. Lastly, we were able to suit up and sit in on different surgeries. This is why this business visit was my favorite! It was extremely interesting to see the process and watch the computers monitor the patients' hearts. I thought it was really crazy how we were even able to do that. I honestly think there's no way the U.S. would allow random students to have access back there, especially without being an intern or potential staff. While watching the surgery and the monitoring computers, the patients' information was pulled up on the computers. Looking at it I was thinking, 'what if we could read Chinese?' I would have access to the confidential information of that patient showing up on the screen. Again, something the U.S. would never even make a mistake on! Overall, I had a great experience.
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