A review of the research on hospital patient satisfaction at home and abroad / 中华医院管理杂志

Patient satisfaction is an important indicator of hospital management and the main basis for measuring the quality of medical services. This paper rounded up relevant literature of patient satisfaction in recent years from three dimensions of the theoretical models, index system construction and evaluation methods by searching EI, Elsevier SD, CNKI and other databases. It found that the current patient satisfaction is mainly evaluated by questionnaire scoring, the evaluation methods are relatively single and mostly involve qualitative indicators. On this basis, this paper proposes that qualitative and quantitative indicators should be associated, the multiple evaluation methods should be combined, the third-party evaluation agencies and intelligent means should be synchronized in the process of patient satisfaction, which aims to provide a reference for improving hospital management level and medical service quality.

Clinical features and the traditional Chinese medicine therapeutic characteristics of 293 COVID-19 inpatient cases / 医学前沿

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is now pandemic worldwide and has heavily overloaded hospitals in Wuhan City, China during the time between late January and February. We reported the clinical features and therapeutic characteristics of moderate COVID-19 cases in Wuhan that were treated via the integration of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine. We collected electronic medical record (EMR) data, which included the full clinical profiles of patients, from a designated TCM hospital in Wuhan. The structured data of symptoms and drugs from admission notes were obtained through an information extraction process. Other key clinical entities were also confirmed and normalized to obtain information on the diagnosis, clinical treatments, laboratory tests, and outcomes of the patients. A total of 293 COVID-19 inpatient cases, including 207 moderate and 86 (29.3%) severe cases, were included in our research. Among these cases, 238 were discharged, 31 were transferred, and 24 (all severe cases) died in the hospital. Our COVID-19 cases involved elderly patients with advanced ages (57 years on average) and high comorbidity rates (61%). Our results reconfirmed several well-recognized risk factors, such as age, gender (male), and comorbidities, as well as provided novel laboratory indications (e.g., cholesterol) and TCM-specific phenotype markers (e.g., dull tongue) that were relevant to COVID-19 infections and prognosis. In addition to antiviral/antibiotics and standard supportive therapies, TCM herbal prescriptions incorporating 290 distinct herbs were used in 273 (93%) cases. The cases that received TCM treatment had lower death rates than those that did not receive TCM treatment (17/273 = 6.2% vs. 7/20= 35%, P = 0.0004 for all cases; 17/77= 22% vs. 7/9= 77.7%, P = 0.002 for severe cases). The TCM herbal prescriptions used for the treatment of COVID-19 infections mainly consisted of Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae, Radix Scutellariae, Rhizoma Pinellia, and their combinations, which reflected the practical TCM principles (e.g., clearing heat and dampening phlegm). Lastly, 59% of the patients received treatment, including antiviral, antibiotics, and Chinese patent medicine, before admission. This situation might have some effects on symptoms, such as fever and dry cough. By using EMR data, we described the clinical features and therapeutic characteristics of 293 COVID-19 cases treated via the integration of TCM herbal prescriptions and Western medicine. Clinical manifestations and treatments before admission and in the hospital were investigated. Our results preliminarily showed the potential effectiveness of TCM herbal prescriptions and their regularities in COVID-19 treatment.

Preliminary Methodology Exploration of TCM Syndrome Regulation Laws Research Based on TCM Constitution / 世界科学技术-中医药现代化

The research on regulation rules of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome was the core of TCM syndrome information. It was thought that the constitution identification which provided the technology for evaluating health status was one of the bases in drawing the curve of conditional standard of syndrome. It was fitted and analyzed by the curve of conditional evolution of syndrome through establishing the curve of conditional standard of TCM constitution theory. It was the key technology of realizing the dynamical evaluation of TCM clinical effect.