The emerging industry of ＂accompanying doctors＂ has sprouted quietly in Wuhan. They specialize in accompanying strangers to see a doctor.
02:29
Accompany patients from other places to Wuhan for medical treatment, prescribe medicines for patients who can’t get to the hospital, and print relevant medical records for discharged patients who need medical insurance claims … This is the daily routine of Wu Enhui, a 28-year-old accompanying doctor. With the dream of starting a business in the accompanying clinic industry, Wu Enhui began to accompany people to see a doctor in July last year.
Since April this year, the number of videos posted by Tik Tok and the accompanying doctors (also known as "accompanying doctors") in Xiaohongshu has suddenly increased. They recorded a section of their accompanying clinic with video and sent it to the platform, so that people who need to accompany the clinic can find themselves. The word "attendant" thus entered the public eye.
Wu Enhui, an accompanying doctor, is signing in the patient. Reporter Tian Qiaoping photo
The reporter of Changjiang Daily recently found that in Wuhan, the sudden increase of "Wu Enhui" since April this year is urging the industry to accompany the doctor. They came with the dream of starting a business and became the pioneers of this emerging industry.
Find business opportunities
Many people need help to see a doctor.
After graduating from college in 2016, Wu Enhui, who majored in mechanical and electrical engineering, initially worked as a self-media in an automobile 4S shop. Before working as a clinic attendant in July last year, she worked in an online training institution for children’s programming for nearly three years. "I was not laid off, but I felt that there was no future in the teaching and training industry."
In the process of taking his family to see a doctor, Wu Enhui found that many people need help to see a doctor. "Now that the hospital is intelligent, a mobile phone can complete registration and payment, but some details such as making an appointment, checking and taking a report are still cumbersome."
For people who are not familiar with the process of hospital medical treatment, the process of seeing a doctor is not simple at all. With the increasingly detailed branches of hospitals and more and more inspection methods, it is still an objective existence that it is difficult to see a doctor. When talking about choosing to accompany the doctor, Wu Enhui said: "There should be a future in doing this, and there are fewer people doing it now."
The vast majority of patients who are looking for Wu Enhui to accompany them go to tongji hospital or Union Medical College Hospital. It is 25 kilometers away from Optics Valley Software City rented by Wu Enhui and his mother. It takes more than 3 hours to get back and forth by bus and subway. Wu Enhui, who is 160 cm tall and weighs less than 45 kg, insisted on "doing something famous".
Wu Enhui, an accompanying doctor, is prescribing medicine for a patient. Reporter Tian Qiaoping photo
Qin Zhaoxian, 49, has been in the clothing business for many years. In August, 2020, she closed the clothing counter in a big shopping mall because of bad business. In April this year, she opened a personal account on Tik Tok, accompanied 200 yuan for half a day, prescribed medicine for 98 yuan, and ran errands to get a test sheet for 68 yuan. She doesn’t think it’s too hard or too little, and she does every order seriously. She hopes that her career can start all over again in the accompanying clinic industry.
51-year-old Hu Danli is Qin Zhaoxian’s best friend. Regarding Qin Zhaoxian’s choice, Hu Danli said: "She has traveled all over the country for many years and has judgment on the market. I believe her!"
Hu Danli, who retired from the hospital last year, is now a partner of Qin Zhaoxian. In May this year, she also opened an account on Tik Tok, taking orders to accompany the doctor. Qin Zhaoxian said: "We must first understand this industry and do it ourselves, so that we can start a business." Hands-on is the best way to get familiar with this industry.
Xiao Shi, who is worried about not finding a suitable operator, opened a consultation company at the end of last year. Her company currently has more than 200 part-time consultation attendants. Most of these attendants are on-the-job nurses, pharmacists and laboratory technicians.
Xiaoshi saw the needs and business opportunities of accompanying the elderly at home, and it took only three months to register the company. As a nurse, she manages the company while accompanying people to see a doctor. "No one has done this industry in the past, and everything has to be explored from scratch." The "post-90 s" entrepreneur knows how to start his own business.
Lily works part-time in Xiaoshi Company and is an on-the-job nurse. Three years ago, she began to work part-time as an accompanying doctor, mainly for insurance companies. She was one of the early people in Wuhan. Lily is now a "gold medal" attendant of Xiaoshi Company. She said that she didn’t have the courage and funds to start a company, but "the nurses can’t keep doing it as they get older". She hoped that she could switch to the training and management of accompanying doctors in the future.
Rapid growth
Accompanying the doctor is similar to the care worker many years ago.
Publishing their own accompanying video on the platform is the most convenient and almost cost-free means for accompanying doctors in Wuhan to obtain customers.
There are 53 accounts associated with "Wuhan accompanying clinic" on the vibrato platform, of which 40 are personal accounts. Among these 40 personal accounts, 23 registered or started to publish the accompanying medical content after April this year, accounting for 57.5% of the total personal accounts; 10 were opened in April; Thirteen were opened in May. It can be seen that after entering April this year, the account number of Tik Tok who accompanied the doctor in Wuhan increased rapidly.
Wu Enhui, an accompanying doctor, is prescribing and taking medicine for patients. Reporter Tian Qiaoping photo
"Wuhan Accompanying Clinic-Daqiao" is Xu Le’s Tik Tok account. Xu Le, a 32-year-old vice president of a large nursing home, continued to share some accompanying knowledge on his account and became a "guide" for some new accompanying doctors.
After the interview, the reporter learned that Xu Le did not take orders to accompany the doctor at present. All the knowledge he shared was his own experience in sending doctors and accompanying the elderly who were hospitalized in nursing homes and at home. An accompanying doctor like Qin Zhaoxian, who has been in the business for a short time, often asks Xu Le for advice through WeChat.
At present, there are two types of patients who seek professional consultation: one is elderly patients; One kind is the patients who come from other places to seek medical treatment in Han.
In an interview with reporters, Xu Le said that China advocates home-based care for the aged, and helping with meals (eating), cleaning (room hygiene) and medical care (seeing a doctor) are the pain points that need to be solved urgently at present.
"The government alone cannot solve all problems, and more social forces must participate." Xu Le said that this is his original intention to release the training video of accompanying consultation online for free. The accompanying doctor can help the elderly at home to solve the problem of seeing a doctor, and help the accompanying doctor grow up and guide more people to participate in the pension industry.
"The accompanying consultation industry in Wuhan is currently in its infancy, but it has just broken ground." Although the accompanying doctors in Wuhan only started to get angry on the video platform in April this year, Xu Le believes that in the near future, the accompanying doctors will become a health-related profession like nursing workers and Yueyue.
"After five years, the number of employees accompanying doctors in Wuhan will reach 10,000." Xu Le made this judgment based on the current data of the pension industry.
"The current accompanying consultation industry is like when the nursing workers just emerged more than 20 years ago." Li Gang, director of Hubei Outpatient Quality Control Center and director of tongji hospital Outpatient Office affiliated to Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, analyzed in an interview that accompanying consultation appeared in line with social development. Special groups such as the elderly, pregnant women, minors and the disabled need accompanying consultation, and the insurance industry needs accompanying consultation service for high-end customers.
Li Gang believes that there is still a pain point that needs to be improved and simplified in the hospital medical treatment process. Due to the downward pressure of the economy, employees in some industries have to transfer jobs, and those who have transferred to the accompanying consultation industry will soon form an effective supply with the help of e-commerce from the media platform. Therefore, the accompanying consultation will develop more rapidly than the nursing workers of that year.
Guanyan Report Network "Analysis Report of China Nursing Industry in 2021-Analysis of Market Development Status and Future Planning" shows that the market scale of China’s nursing industry will continue to grow during the five years from 2016 to 2020, reaching 34.12 billion yuan in 2020.
In fact, with the help of video self-media platform, the word "accompanying diagnosis" is becoming familiar to the public. From May 28th to June 12th, the number of searches on topics related to "Wuhan Accompanying Clinic" increased by 387,000 times in Tik Tok. In Wuhan, the accompanying doctors quickly activated this market.
On the recruitment platform of Zhilian, companies in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are recruiting accompanying doctors, among which Beijing has released 10 positions for accompanying doctors. Only one company in Chengdu, a city outside Guangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, released the recruitment information of accompanying doctors on May 20 this year. In these cities, the monthly salary of accompanying doctors ranges from 8,000 yuan to 12,000 yuan. There is no such job recruitment in Wuhan at present.
Attention to detail
Accompanying the doctor is not that simple.
Accompany the doctor, accompany the patient to see a doctor all the time; On behalf of the consultation, the patient does not come, instead of the patient to find a doctor; Running errands, making an appointment for examination, sending a report, borrowing pathological slides, prescribing and sending medicines … Accompanying the doctor, consulting on his behalf and running errands are the three major business contents of accompanying the doctor at present. Specific to every single order of each attendant, the operation goes its own way and is done according to your own understanding.
In the outpatient building of a big hospital that is bustling every day. Reporter Tian Qiaoping photo
"We are just accompanying our family to see a doctor." Qin Zhaoxian said that before the patient arrived, she helped the patient to complete the work of taking the number and signing in. When the patient arrived, she accompanied him, and the wheelchair took it and pushed it. Wait with the patient at the door of the expert consultation room. When the patient enters, he will wait outside. When the patient is optimistic about his illness, she will complete the procedures of payment, appointment for examination, taking medicine, etc. After seeing the illness, he will be sent out of the hospital gate to wave goodbye.
At about 10: 00 a.m. on May 26th, Wu Enhui accompanied a patient from Jingzhou who came to Wuhan to visit the Union Medical College Hospital. After seeing the doctor, she asked the patient to go home by bus to Hankou Railway Station. Xiao Wu accompanied her to take the subway to the railway station, and when she came back, she just went to tongji hospital to get medicine for a patient who had been accompanying the doctor for the first day.
"I didn’t send her until it was too late. If it was too late, I couldn’t go." No one asked Xiao Wu to send the patient to the station after seeing the doctor, and no one said not to go. Xiao Wu said that she accompanied her. On the one hand, she always wanted someone to accompany her when she was sick. On the other hand, she had time to send it. The next time she needed to accompany her, she would come to see herself again, which would make her "repeat customers".
Until now, Wu Enhui will return to the hospital and look around unfamiliar windows and departments after sending the patients out of the hospital.
"Many accompanying doctors and even patients and their families don’t know that image data like CT can be burned, I know!" Wu Enhui didn’t know that the hospital provided this service until a patient who had been seeing a doctor in Beijing for a long time needed to send the CT images taken in Wuhan to Beijing, and she didn’t know how to handle this service.
On the morning of Dragon Boat Festival, a girl from other places came to Wuhan to see a doctor. The doctor issued nine checklists, and the inspection locations were distributed on the fourth floor. What to do first, and then what to do, Wu Enhui arranged nine checklists based on his familiarity with hospital procedures and the specific requirements of inspection, in order to complete the inspection as much as possible before leaving work at noon.
Wu Enhui said that accompanying the doctor is not that simple, and planning is very important, which can help patients optimize the medical treatment process and save medical treatment time. Therefore, it is very important to learn relevant medical knowledge and be familiar with hospital procedures, which will be used in the details of accompanying diagnosis.
Accompanying the doctor, as a new job, has no operating standards to refer to, no gourd to draw a gourd for you, and everything depends on the accompanying doctor to explore. This is also the place where Wu Enhui and Qin Zhaoxian are distressed. They are eager for someone or department to provide them with training, so that the accompanying service can be more professional and at the same time avoid risks.
Emerging occupations
People need companionship and psychological comfort when they are sick.
People who are engaged in accompanying doctors in Wuhan are divided into two categories: those with medical background and those without medical background. Therefore, it is controversial whether the accompanying doctors should study medicine. The accompanying doctor who studied medicine said that only with certain medical knowledge can you accompany the doctor well; People from non-medical backgrounds say that I just need to be careful, patient and thoughtful.
Li Gang, Chairman of Hubei Outpatient Quality Control Center and Director of tongji hospital Outpatient Office affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, was interviewed by Changjiang Daily. Correspondent Chang Yushe
Li Gang introduced that accompanying doctors can be quickly accepted by the society, because it has played three roles: First, it plays a nursing role, providing full-course medical support for elderly people, pregnant women and other people with mobility difficulties who are not accompanied by their families; The second is the planning function, which provides patients with medical treatment process planning and running errands, saving patients’ time cost and even economic cost; The third is psychological support. People need company and psychological comfort when they are sick.
There are indeed some people selling training courses for accompanying doctors on the Internet. Xu Le said that some people have never done accompanying doctors. "They bought courses for attracting people and said that they earned seven or eight hundred yuan a day. How is it possible?" Xu Le then made 45 introductory videos for accompanying doctors and posted them on the platform for people to learn for free.
Due to the release of the free training video, Xu Le gathered around more than 30 newly-enrolled accompanying doctors. One day, Xu Le received a phone call from an attendant: "An epileptic patient from other places asked to prescribe medicine for two months, and the hospital can only prescribe medicine for five days. He asked me to prescribe it with my ID card. Is it ok?" Xu Le was anxious: "This violates the regulations on prescription management and is not allowed!"
There is also an accompanying doctor who signed the informed consent form for gynecological surgery for a minor girl without authorization. This incident caused a great sensation in the circle of accompanying doctors in Wuhan-some said that the accompanying doctor was not the guardian of the little girl and the word could not be signed; Some people think that accompanying patients is to help patients, which is kind.
On a certain video platform, the video about accompanying consultation has been played 310 million times, and the video about accompanying consultation content of Wuhan’s top video account has been played more than 4 million times.
"Attendant is a new profession." In an interview with Changjiang Daily, Hu Li, a senior human resources researcher of Zhaopin Wuhan Branch, said that the emergence of a new profession will go through several stages: there is demand in the market-someone will meet the demand-a case will be created-a professional company will appear-and industry norms will be born.
At present, the accompanying clinic industry in Wuhan is in the stage of "producing a case", and the regulation and supervision of the industry is vacuum. In an interview with Changjiang Daily, Li Gang called on hospitals to treat the "accompanying clinic" industry rationally and objectively, distinguish it from medical care providers and traffickers who need to be cracked down, support the standardized development of the accompanying clinic industry, meet the needs of patients, and improve the efficiency and quality of medical services.
(Changjiang Daily reporter Tian Qiaoping correspondent Chang Yu intern Zhao Xinyu)
[Editor: Zheng Xiaoxiao]
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