Medical services should keep up to support a region's development.

Shenzhen is a rapidly developing city. Compared to its urban economic development scale, the development of medical and health services still needs to make efforts. Meanwhile, Shenzhen is also faced with a big gap in medical development between the eastern and the western regions and an uneven allocation of high-quality medical resources.The western areas, led by Nanshan and Bao'an districts, along with the central areas led by Futian and Luohu districts, have accumulated a considerable number of high-quality medical resources. In contrast, medical resources are relatively scarce in Pingshan, Dapeng, etc.

Shenzhen Samii Medical Center (The Fourth People's Hospital of Shenzhen) in Pingshan District emerged in this context. Its establishment fills the gap of lacking municipal general public hospitals in the eastern area of Shenzhen. As the only municipal general public hospital jointly operated by Chinese and foreign sides in China, what features has it brought and what changes has it made to regional medical development after its settlement in Pingshan? The "Grand View" column of Southern Metropolis Daily walks into Shenzhen Samii Medical Center (The Fourth People's Hospital of Shenzhen, hereinafter referred to as "SSMC") and has an interview with WANG Cheng, CPC Secretary of SSMC.

01 Does SSMC offer medical services only for foreigners? We are a municipal public hospital.

This is the confusion of many citizens about the hospital name.

"Samii is the name of a foreign medical expert, which may give the public a false impression. However, the hospital serves the ordinary people and adopts the most basic pricing approved by the National Development and Reform Commission. Payments can be made by medical insurance. To clear up the public's misunderstanding on the positioning of the hospital, the name of The Fourth People's Hospital of Shenzhen is specially added to highlight the nonprofit nature of being a public hospital and make the people feel more at ease to enter the hospital", WANG Cheng said. It is not a hospital specifically for foreigners, but it owns "international genes" that are not available in other hospitals in Shenzhen. The name of the hospital, Samii, comes from the name of Prof. Madjid Samii, Honorary President for Life of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS). Jointly operated by a professional team co-established by Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission and Prof. Madjid Samii, it is the only municipal public hospital jointly operated by Chinese and foreign sides in China.

SSMC is fully invested by Shenzhen Government. With the help of German exquisite medical technologies and advanced hospital management concepts, it tries to employ foreign talents as Hospital Director and Deputy Hospital Director, hoping to promote its rapid development by virtue of foreign advanced medical management concepts. 

It is not easy to build a new hospital. At that time, Pingshan District was still relatively backward in development, with inconvenient transportation and a small population. The Shenzhen Government intends to fill the medical shortcomings in the eastern area, and hopes to establish a municipal general public Grade III hospital in Pingshan. In 2016, WANG Cheng was assigned the task to start the preparatory work, as the preparatory team leader of SSMC.

This has been a process of going from nothing to something. Along with the significant improvement in the roads and traffic conditions of Pingshan, medical services have also been enhanced substantially. In 2017, SSMC began trial operation, followed by official operation in 2020. A municipal public hospital integrating medical services, research, teaching, disease prevention, health maintenance and rehabilitation healthcare was born.

In line with the standards for Grade III general hospitals, SSMC is positioned as a general hospital focusing on neuroscience. Since its establishment, it has always been taking "a general hospital with strong neuroscience" as its goal of specialty construction. "The hospital owns 600 approved beds, nearly half of which are used for Neurology, Neurosurgery, Neurointensive Care, Neurological Rehabilitation and other neurological specialties. The other half are used for comprehensive medical services, serving residents within the district and the eastern area of Shenzhen and forming a dislocation development with other hospitals in the region." WANG Cheng introduced that SSMC thinks about how to make supply-side structural reforms, how to consider the disease spectrum of residents within the radiation range and their medical needs and how to provide high-quality medical services for residents as a medical service provider.In just over 5 years of development, the hospital has now built a domestic leading Hybrid Operating Room specifically for neurosurgery and neuro-ICU, and its neurosurgical hardware has reached the first-class level in China. The Hybrid Operating Room combines large-scale diagnosis and treatment equipment DSA and MR with the traditional operating room. It is also equipped with high-tech equipment such as the neuronavigation system, high-end surgical microscope, surgical robot, and ventriculoscope, so as to realize the integrated and comprehensive medical concept of "moving the equipment instead of moving the patients", effectively protect patients' safety and maximize patients' safety and interests.

In addition, through a market survey of disease spectra, once SSMC found that the treatment for certain diseases is needed by the ordinary people, but there is a lack of related disciplines or experts, it will immediately set up relevant departments or teams. Previously, patients with myocardial infarction in Pingshan had to be sent to other places for medical treatment, during which the patients may fall into danger due to remote distance and traffic inconvenience. To this end, SSMC has stepped up efforts to build a chest pain center. After its establishment, it has rescued numerous people. In the past, most residents in Pingshan would choose other hospitals outside the district for delivery. After the construction of SSMC's Obstetrics Department that can provide safe and high-quality services for parturients, the number of parturients staying in Pingshan has soared.

02 How does SSMC serve patients? Our environment "cures" you first.

Once you enter SSMC, you will be instantly attracted by its appearance. Unlike the facade of traditional hospitals, the facade of SSMC is full of sense of science and technology. The three sky gardens and fish pond owned by SSMC create a quiet and beautiful environment, making people forget that, for the time being, they are in a hospital.

"To Cure Sometimes, To Relieve Often, To Comfort Always", these 9 words are regarded by most people as the canon of doctors' practice. In fact, a beautiful and pleasant medical environment virtually reduces the pressure on patients to seek medical treatment and heals and comforts patients and their families visiting the hospital.

At SSMC, every single brick and tile are working to serve the patients. "The hospital will continuously optimize to satisfy citizens' needs." WANG Cheng introduced that during the COVID-19 pandemic, patients had to press the button by hand when taking an elevator, and it was troublesome for them to repeatedly wipe their hands. To put patients' needs in the first place, the hospital equipped voice-activated elevators as required. As a child-friendly hospital, children's entertainment facilities are available in the Outpatient Services and wards of Pediatrics. The walls are decorated with cartoons to relieve children's nervousness in seeking medical treatment. SSMC also pays great attention to the construction of facilities such as sidewalks for the blind and barrier-free facilities. The hospital separates man from vehicle, and all patients and their families, including medical staff, are very safe to walk on the first floor. To avoid the inconvenience of going to the restroom for family members taking care of patients, a household restroom is specially set up. "Every aspect of work should take into account whether it is required by patients and whether it can improve their medical experience", WANG Cheng introduced.

 03 Whether medical treatment is a service industry has always been debated in the medical field.

SSMC has always stuck to the philosophy of "all for patients, for all patients, for patients' all". Adhering to this management concept, WANG Cheng believes that medical treatment is a complete service industry. However, compared with the ordinary service industry, it carries technical content and professional knowledge, and medical staff must bear in mind the concept of service. "Comparison has often been made to the aviation industry since it has a low incidence of air crashes. Why is the incidence of air crashes so low? Just because the whole chain of the aviation industry has always taken safety and service as the top priorities." WANG Cheng said that what the medical system should learn from the aviation industry is the emphasis on safety and service.
In recent years, with high-quality medical services, the number of foreign patients coming to the hospital has increased significantly. "Currently, the hospital offers services in English, Russian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. Foreigners who study, live and travel in Shenzhen usually choose the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital for medical treatment. Now, SSMC has become another option for them." WANG Cheng introduced that during the epidemic, SSMC was also one of the designated service hospitals for foreigners. The hospital also set up an international customer service department to provide medical services for foreigners, forming a complete upstream and downstream service chain to help them establish medical records, recommend international insurance, and provide relevant materials for insurance reimbursement.

 04 What is the essence of hospital management? Mobilizing the enthusiasm of all staff.Hospital management is inseparable from medical safety.

WANG Cheng believes that "medical safety" is a pseudo-proposition and that we should talk about "patient safety" rather than medical safety. How to ensure patient safety in the process of treatment is critical, which is also the unremitting pursuit of SSMC from the beginning of its establishment.

According to WANG Cheng, in the process of treating patients, medical staff should be armed with service awareness, communication ability, love and lifelong learning capability. Medical staff appear as doctors or nurses in their posts to serve the patients; secondly, they should know how to communicate to dispel patients' doubts, and help patients build confidence in overcoming everything and actively cooperate with doctors to get better curative effect.

"Medicine is a science with humanity and temperature. If technology is a model house, then humanity is a load-bearing wall." WANG Cheng stated that some doctors can comfort patients through communication and make them feel safe when they see doctors, so the humanistic quality of doctors is also very important.

As an expert neurosurgeon working for more than 30 years and now in a management position, WANG Cheng thinks that doctors should be simple and merely consider how to treat diseases and how to provide medical services for patients. However, after taking up the hospital's management position, he has to consider how to meet the public's ever-growing needs for medical services, how to serve the medical staff, how to introduce talents, and how to motivate the staff with scientific performance. As a manager, he has to think more and look at things from a higher perspective. "The essence of management is not to control every employee, but to mobilize the enthusiasm of all employees through management means, management data and management tools, which will jointly contribute to the development of the hospital. The difference among managers, doctors and nurses merely lies in the division of labor, but everyone can do well in their profession." Recalling the 7-year journey, WANG Cheng felt very moved: "All staff and citizens, together with me, witnessed the hospital from scratch and from small to large. We are satisfied while also knowing our shortcomings. There is still a long way to go."

At present, the hospital is actively promoting the stage II construction, which is expected to start this year. After the stage II construction, the total area of the hospital (including stages I and II) will cover about 90,000 m², providing Shenzhen with a capacity of 1,000 beds (400 beds added in stage II).

Overall medical accommodation will be more reasonable, with more beds. "The stage I Research Building, Lecture Hall, restaurants, etc. will also be upgraded in the future. Under the leadership of Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission, with the strong support of the People's Government of Pingshan District, with the joint efforts of all staff and in the context of close Sino-German cooperation, SSMC will certainly get better in the future to offer residents in the eastern area of Shenzhen with better, more efficient and safer medical services." WANG Cheng is looking forward to it.

Coordinated by: LI Rong, reporter of Southern Metropolis Daily 

Interviewed and written by: XIE Meng and LI Rong, reporters of Southern Metropolis Daily 

Edited by: LI Rong