TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital

China Day 9 (Tianjin)

After today's lecture, we went to go see the TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital. I am studying more in the fields of Development and Environmental Economics, but this was a very interesting look into one of the most advanced specialized hospitals in the world. The hospital was built in 2003 so it had a very modern look and it seemed to accommodate the staff and patients as such. One of the most interesting things about this visit was when we learned about the Hospital Information System. These hospital cards have a little micro chip in them which has all of the patients information on it. This also allows the hospital to have a well filtered information system on all of their patients, making the hospital completely paper free. This is a brilliant idea because it saves a lot of time and makes information much easier to find and hold on to. We got to look at how the hospital packages the medicine for their patients. The medicine is all in different packets which makes it very easy for the client to know how many pills they need to take in a day and on which days. This seems like a much better strategy than the way it is done in the United States with capsules, as sometimes following the instructions on the capsule can be difficult, especially for some of the elderly. We then got to suit up in medical gear and follow a nurse to the outside of an operating room where we got to see the Chinese do part of a surgery on a patient. They explained what the different computers are displaying and what the different equipment is. I don't think there is any way a US hospital would let a bunch of college students come in and see how it's done so this was a very cool and most likely once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This was a great experience and I am getting the impression more and more that there are many things that the Chinese do much better than our country.