JCI's Asia Pacific Region
China's Ministry of Health
Our Visit to China…
China's population is more than 1.3 billion. She has more than 315,000 health care organizations (over 60,000 general hospitals) that employ more than 4.68 million health care staff (2.04 million practicing doctors and 1.47 million registered nurses).
Based on this data, China's Ministry of Health has a huge task in managing its health care system efficiently and effectively — even more so because China is committed to providing universal basic health care coverage to its citizens.
Back in 2007, the Ministry of Health signed a cooperative agreement with JCI to provide assistance to improve patient safety in addition to assisting the Chinese government with development of an evaluation system for Chinese public and non-profit hospitals.
JCI also entered into a partnership with the Peking University Health Sciences Center (PUHSC) to develop an Institute for Healthcare Quality Improvement and Patient Safety that would support research and capacity building for healthcare quality improvement and patient safety in China.
After more than a year of hard work, the Institute was inaugurated on 21 November 2008 at a ceremony attended by JCI President and CEO Karen Timmons and PUHSC President Professor Han Qide. Prior to the ceremony, James Killingsworth, Anne Rooney, and myself conducted a one-day seminar on the JCI International Essentials of Patient Safety and Quality Improvement. More than 100 senior doctors, nurses and other staff from Beijing attended this inaugural training session. I spoke about the importance of leadership for reducing essential risks in healthcare organizations.
I would like to commend China and its millions of health care workers in addition to all the hospital administrators and staff reading this blog who actively take steps to advance health care quality and patient safety throughout their country, city or hospital. When combined, the efforts that each of you puts forth amounts to the universal advancement of patient safety and health care quality worldwide.
Paul Chang
pchang@jcrinc.com
Previous Notes from Paul Chang
January, 2009 - Medical Records