China built a lot of hospitals last year

In addition to having a new set of research questions to write about, my Chinese has finally progressed to the point where I can confidently dare to translate official government documents for your use. In the first of such attempts I give you the latest report from the Ministry of Health’s Statistics Information Center. I did the translation paragraph by paragraph – Chinese paragraph first, followed by the English language paragraph on the bottom.

This report, issued on August 31st, has several interesting numbers worthy of note for China healthcare industry watchers – including hospital visit and hospital discharge numbers for China in the first half of 2012. The stat that jumps out most is that since July 2011, China has added 17,422 new medical and healthcare institutions, 1,399 of these new institutions are hospitals.

If you find this sort of thing useful, feel free to suggest other documents you’d like translated and I’ll try to turn that into a column.

Translation begins below:

2012年7月全国医疗服务情况

July 2012, Medical Service Sector Situation Report

　一、医疗服务工作量

（一）诊疗人次。2012年1-7月，全国医疗卫生机构总诊疗人次达37.5 亿人次,同比提高11.9%。其中:医院诊疗人次为13.9 亿人次，同比提高15.3%；基层医疗卫生机构诊疗人次为22.5 亿人次，同比提高9.6%；其他机构1.2 亿人次。基层医疗卫生机构中:社区卫生服务中心（站)3.2 亿人次，同比提高19.6%;乡镇卫生院5.3 亿人次，同比提高10.1%;村卫生室诊疗人次10.5 亿人次（见表1）。

A. Medical Services Workload

(1) Visits. Between January and July of 2012: The total number of visits to medical and health providers reached 3.75 billion. Compared with the same time last year this figure represents an increase of 11.9%. Hospitals saw 1.39 billion visits, an increase of 15.3% over last year during the same period. The grassroots medical and healthcare organizations saw 2.25 billion patients. Compared with the same time last year this figure represents a 9.6% increase. Other organizations saw 120 million visits.  Among grassroots medical and healthcare organizations, community health centers and their stations saw 320 million visits. Compared to the same time last year this is a 19.6% increase. Township hospitals saw 530 million visits. Compared to the same time last year this is a 10.1% increase. Village health posts saw 1.5 billion visits. (See table 1)

二）出院人数。

　　2012年1-7月，全国医疗卫生机构出院人数达9623.2 万人，同比提高18.4%。其中:医院出院人数6828.8 万人，同比提高19.2%；基层医疗卫生机构出院人数为2323.3 万人，同比提高16.2%；其他机构471.1 万人。基层医疗卫生机构中:社区卫生服务中心149.3 万人，同比提高23.2%;乡镇卫生院2152.6 万人，同比提高16.8%。

(2) Number of discharged patients

Between January to July of 2012: Total national medical and health institution discharges reached 96.232 million people. Compared to this same period (of seven months) last year, this figure represents an increase of 18.4%. Hospitals discharged 68.288 million people, an increase of 19.2% over last year, during the same seven month period. Grassroots medical and health organizations discharged 23.233 million people, an increase of 16.2% over last year during the same seven month period. All other institutions discharged 4.711 million people. Among grassroots organizations, community health centers discharged 1.493 million people, an increase of 23.2% over the same seven month period last year; township hospitals discharged 21.526 million people, an increase of 16.% over the same seven month period last year.

Table 1: Total number of visits and discharges for all national medical and healthcare institutions.

二、病床使用情况

　　2012年1-7月，医院病床使用率为93.9%，同比提高3.5 个百分点，社区卫生服务中心为57.9%，同比提高3.8 个百分点，乡镇卫生院为64.1%，同比提高6.2 个百分点。三级医院平均住院日为11.4 日，同比降低0.6 日，二级医院平均住院日为9.1 日，同比降低0.1 日。

B. Bed occupancy

Between January to July of 2012: The bed occupancy rate in hospitals was 93.9%, a 3.5 percentage point increase over the rate during the same seven month period last year. The bed occupancy rate in community health centers was 57.9%, an increase of 3.8 percentage points versus the rate during the same seven month period las year. Township hospitals had a bed occupancy rate of 64.1%, an increase of 6.2 percentage points versus the rate for the same period last year. Third tier hospitals’ average length of stay was 11.4 days, a decrease of .6 days versus the average length of stay during the same seven month period last year. Second tier hospitals’ average length of stay was 9.1 days, an decrease of .1 days versus the average length of stay during the same seven month period last year.

三、医疗卫生机构数

　　截至2012年7月底，全国医疗卫生机构数达96.1 万个，其中：医院2.3 万个，基层医疗卫生机构92.4 万个，其他机构1.4 万个。基层医疗卫生机构中:社区卫生服务中心(站)3.4 万个，乡镇卫生院3.7 万个，村卫生室66.4 万个，诊所(医务室)17.8 万个。
与2011年7月底比较，全国医疗卫生机构增加17422个，其中：医院增加1399个，基层医疗卫生机构增加15931个。基层医疗卫生机构中:社区卫生服务中心（站）增加1525个，乡镇卫生院减少342个，村卫生室增加11560个，诊所（医务室）增加2265个。

C. Number of medical and health institutions

Through the end of July 2012: The number of medical and healthcare institutions in the country reached 961,000. Of that number, 23,000 are hospitals, 924,000 are grassroots medical and healthcare institutions, and 14,000 are other institutions. Of the 924,000 medical and healthcare institutions, 34,000 are community health centers, 37,000 are township health centers, 664,000 are village health posts, and 178,000 are clinics.

Compared with the end of July 2011, there are 17,422 more medical and healthcare institutions. Of this number 1,399 are hospitals, 15,931 are grassroots healthcare organizations. Of the 15,931 grassroots healthcare organizations added to the county since July 2011, there are 1525 new community health centers and/or health center stations, 342 new township hospitals, 11,560 village outposts, and 2,265 clinics.

*Note: It is unclear whether the “new” additions are newly built, reclassified, or repurposed spaces. But the pace of growth is certainly impressive.