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taking a number, triage, paying fees, examinations, picking up medicines... for elderly patients or those seeking medical treatment in other places, facing the cumbersome procedures alone in the hospital often feels helpless. in recent years, the quietly emerging medical companion service has tried to provide some help.

however, the term "accompanying doctor" has not yet been included in the national occupational classification. due to the lack of standards, the industry currently has problems such as unclear service content, confusing charging standards, and uneven quality. some institutions or individuals even act as "scalpers" in the name of accompanying doctors.

image source: visual china

finding a doctor is like opening a blind box

ms. cheng's mother, 76 years old, had heart surgery last year and needs to go to the hospital for regular checkups. "she has to run up and down the stairs and queue up everywhere. her legs and feet are not very good, so she can't go alone." considering that her father is also in poor health and she is busy with work, ms. cheng plans to find a doctor to accompany her mother."there are quite a few online, but i don't know which ones are reliable."

on social media platforms, the reporter searched for "accompanying a doctor" and found a large number of self-recommendation posts. "i can accompany you to see a doctor, take down doctor's orders, accompany you during surgery, do checkups, accompany you for iv drips, check up pregnant women, collect reports, pick up and mail medicines..." a blogger posted a post saying,the accompanying fee is 288 yuan/half day (within 4 hours), 500 yuan/day (within 8 hours), and 60 yuan/hour overtime. it can also be calculated by the hour, 100 yuan for the first hour and 60 yuan per hour thereafter. the service population includes the elderly whose children cannot accompany them to the hospital, pregnant women who cannot accompany them for physical examinations, mothers with babies, and young people who come to the hospital alone for treatment. however, the blogger's introduction of himself is limited to: "i am a post-00s, gentle and patient."

image source: visual china

in addition to individuals,some institutions are also trying to provide accompanying medical services.on a certain platform, the half-day accompanying service is charged at 320 yuan per visit. in the special instructions, it is emphasized that "if the patient cannot take care of himself and is not accompanied by his family, this service will not be provided for the time being."

on another platform,the charge for half-day accompanying service is rmb 298 per visit.the service details mention that during the accompanying service, if the patient is under 12 years old or over 70 years old (inclusive), at least one family member is requested to accompany the patient.

during the investigation, the reporter found that even when mentioning the age of the service recipients, the standards of each platform were different. the service agreement of one platform required that"the full-time medical companionship for the elderly is only applicable to those aged 65 to 80 who can take care of themselves. for those aged 80 or above and those who cannot take care of themselves, at least one family member must accompany them throughout the medical consultation."in addition, it is required that "minors under the age of 18 must be accompanied throughout the consultation by at least one guardian."

what are the paid medical attendants like? on some platforms, the medical attendants available for appointment are displayed in a list. but taking one platform as an example, the information actually provided to users is very limited. in the experience introduction, most of the descriptions are just general descriptions such as "lovely and approachable, with medical experience, and loves this profession", "serious, enthusiastic, and responsible", "honest and trustworthy, and cheerful".on many other platforms, it is not even possible to learn any information about the accompanying therapist in advance and one can only wait for the platform to dispatch the order after placing the order.

"without seeing the specific information of the accompanying physician, there is no way to judge."in ms. cheng's opinion, the process of finding a doctor is like "opening a blind box" and "you can only try your luck and have no idea what's going on."

it's called accompanying the doctor, but it's actually a reversal of the appointment

"expedite medical treatment, make appointments for examinations, consult in other places, run errands to get medicine..." on an e-commerce platform, a merchant who focuses on "beijing medical companionship" claims in the introduction that it can provide high-end medical companionship services. the medical companionship service process includesconsultation appointments, hospital meetings, accompanying patients to the hospital, recording medical instructions, post-diagnosis care and other links.

after consulting the customer service, the other party suggested adding wechat. in the circle of friends, the reporter saw that the other party had posted several records of registration for specialist appointments at tertiary hospitals. the other party said,the fee for accompanying a patient is 300 yuan for half a day. in addition to accompanying a patient, you can also help with registration.

image source: visual china

the reporter saw on the registration platform of a certain tertiary hospital that all the appointments for the famous expert in breast surgery were booked."yes, it's expensive."the other party quickly replied that the outpatient consultation fee for this specialist was 3,700 yuan, and the fee for the international medical department was 1,500 yuan. then, he provided the price of two other doctors in the department, "these two are 600 yuan."

"registration, examination, hospitalization, green channel in major hospitals in beijing, connection with authoritative medical institutions, guarantee fast, reliable and lowest price, feel free to contact me if you need." on the social platform, a blogger named "beijing accompanying clinic" has also successively released a number of accompanying records. among them, some well-known experts' clinic records are specially posted. "in major tertiary hospitals, gastroscopy, ct, mri, b-ultrasound examinations can be expedited and can be done at any time, and surgery and hospitalization can be expedited."

the other party said that he could accompany the patient for 300 yuan for half a day.if you don’t get a number, we can help you add one.the reporter asked if he could get an appointment with the same famous breast surgery expert, and the other party gave a quote, "an additional appointment at the international medical department is 1,800 yuan, and an additional appointment at the general outpatient clinic is 5,000 yuan."

image source: visual china

zhu tongyu, member of the national committee of the chinese people's political consultative conference and vice president of shanghai medical college of fudan university, has been paying attention to this phenomenon for a long time. "we have found that some institutions or personnel are acting as scalpers in the name of 'accompanying patients', which is bound to hinder medical fairness."in his opinion, some "scalpers" will induce patients to go to the hospitals they "recommended" for treatment and charge high fees."now, there is no threshold for the medical companion industry, and there is a lack of relevant guidance on pricing, so patients are often passive when choosing."

liu xin, director of the medical law and ethics research center of china university of political science and law, believes that regardless of whether or not an accompanying service is provided, any form of reselling of doctor appointments, regardless of how much the price is increased, even if it is a negligible one yuan, should be considered as reselling. this behavior not only violates market rules, but also violates the relevant provisions of the state to crack down on "scalpers" reselling hospital appointments.

accompanying patients needs to develop towards professionalization

the reporter found out during the investigation that"medical companion" has not yet been included in the newly revised "classification of occupations of the people's republic of china (2022 edition)" to be announced to the public by the ministry of human resources and social security in 2022.there are already many individuals and institutions in the market that carry out relevant training, but they are in a "each doing their own" state.

"first, i will send you a practical summary, including how to acquire customers online and offline, what should be paid attention to during the medical consultation process, what kind of exemption agreement needs to be signed with the customer, etc." on the social platform, a blogger used the medical consultation group chat to attract people who are interested in doing this job to join. "another way is for us to teach, charging 299 yuan, and the price will increase later."

in addition, there are different opinions about the research on accompanying doctors."you can take the exam to become a medical companion consultant at the social security capacity building center of the ministry of human resources and social security. you can study online and take the exam online. the original registration price is 1,580 yuan, and the current discounted price is 1,380 yuan."a staff member of one institution said, “the exam is not difficult and a question bank will be provided.” in another institution, a staff member saidrecommendedcommunity health assistant certificate,"online learning, offline examination, content includes theory and practice."

image source: visual china

the reporter learned thatthe chinese society of gerontology and geriatrics is also trying to carry out "medical companion" training.the content covers more than ten courses including the basic knowledge of accompanying medical services, basic medical knowledge, accompanying medical psychology, accompanying medical risks and legal issues. after passing the examination, students will be awarded a completion certificate by the chinese society of gerontology and geriatrics.

“the medical escort industry should move towardsprofessionalization, formalization, and institutionalizationzhu tongyu said that the standardization of the medical companion industry requires the joint participation of practitioners, industry associations, hospitals and health administrative departments.

in liu xin's opinion, although accompanying patients to the hospital takes place in the hospital, it does not fall within the scope of traditional medical services, so it is difficult for the medical department to directly issue normative documents. at the same time, since accompanying patients to the hospital is a niche and special occasion service, it is difficult for market regulatory authorities to formulate professional standards for it.it is recommended that relevant departments, especially hospitals, should post relevant reminders and risk warnings in the hospital outpatient lobby or official website to remind providers and those who need accompanying services to sign a written contract to protect the rights and interests of both parties.

"the accompanying service is essentially an auxiliary activity driven by market demand, mainly serving the elderly who are unfamiliar with hospital procedures or have limited mobility. due to the current lack of unified industry standards, the accompanying service should be regulated in accordance with the relevant contract requirements in the civil code, and both parties should clarify their respective rights and obligations through the signing of a contract. only in this way can we safeguard our legitimate rights and interests when encountering problems. accompanying service personnel should also pay attention to safeguarding their own legitimate rights and interests." said liu xin.