Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-01-05
China's medical services sector, which has often been criticized for its lack of efficiency in the past, is undergoing a transformation ushered in online third-party-payment services, according to Guangzhou's 21st Century Business Herald.
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| A patient scans the QR code of the Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center with Alipay Wallet, a mobile app operated by Alibaba, May 30. (Photo/CNS) |
China's medical services sector, which has often been criticized for its lack of efficiency in the past, is undergoing a transformation ushered in online third-party-payment services, according to Guangzhou's 21st Century Business Herald.
Scenes of
patients waiting in long queues to make appointments, which were often seen
outside Shanghai's First Maternity and Infant Hospital before it opened at 7am
in the past, no longer exist today, said Zhuang Siliang, head of PR at the
hospital.
This all
happened after the hospital joined Alipay's "future hospital" program
in August and introduced the WeChat payment service in October, according to
Zhuang.
Alipay and
WeChat users can use these two services to make appointments with doctors,
receive messages reminding them of their appointment, pay medical bills, and
check their prescriptions online, completing most steps in the process at a
faster pace, the newspaper stated.
Alipay and
WeChat launched their respective programs in May and August, as both plan to
tap into the medical services sector by improving user experience and
optimizing resource allocation in hospitals.
Alipay, the
third-party-payment subsidiary of e-commerce giant Alibaba, told the newspaper
that it has signed up 21 hospitals, while Tencent's social messaging app WeChat
has the same number of hospitals in its program.
Zhuang said
the use of the two services is most frequent at the outpatient department and
patients no longer have to be present physically at the hospital just to make
an appointment.
The
newspaper added that Alipay is planning to further incorporate online
prescriptions, delivery of medicine and claims for medical insurance in its
program, which is expected to be built into an online health management
platform.
This
reflects how internet companies can monetize online data and traffic through
cloud computing the analysis of big data, the newspaper said.
Zhuang said
the use of mobile applications may help optimize the use of resources, but it
is still unable to resolve the problems of expensive medical bills and the lack
of access to medical services in the country.
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