Linyi People’s Hospital is much larger than I imagined. Because there were no readily available Internet hospital images, I anticipated an institution that might have been smaller in scale. In fact, the hospital is a 2000 (as in two thousand) bed, state of the art facility. Since we were in the “older” part of the hospital, it wasn’t until the formal opening day ceremony that I realized the full size grandeur of the hospital. The images from this ceremony show you the towering atrium extending up to five or more floors from a polished marble foyer. All departments have well-organized signage and while I haven’t directly seen it, I suspect that the hospital (like others in China I’ve visited) is “wired” – using with credit card like patient ID cards and electronic medical records issued to inpatients and outpatients alike. As someone with this interest, Id like to have a long conversation with someone in the hospital IT department to see if this is the case, how records are stored, what their concerns are for privacy, etc. A cross-cultural analysis of sorts. We may have much to learn from them.

The separation of OR and hospital ward doesn’t permit much time with the patients and families pre and postoperatively. While I can easily fulfill the morning obligation of making rounds, it’s all the more difficult to drop into the ward to chat with other team members, see how I might be able to help, answer questions, and spend some time with the families and patients. If the OR and ward were closer, this wouldn’t be the case. One of the unfortunate aspects of this arrangement is that you can’t spend long amounts of time learning from the families of where they’re from what their expectations are of the surgery, how they feel about us, their thoughts about this type of mission, etc. I’d love to learn more about them, much as I do my patients back home. It not only adds a new dimension to the work I do, but adds to the magical bond between physicians and patient/family. Otherwise, it sometimes feels like just “doing surgery” (which for all it’s artistic and technical aspects, is admittedly what many of us crave). I’m lucky that our ward team has a passion for the patient and family relationship. Through this they can provide a technical level of care well balanced by an abundance of personal supportive care. I can see also how for many ward-based team members share this sentiment – like when I witnessed Sharon sharing a very emotional moment with one of the mothers in the preoperative holding area. When I see and feel this, I know that so much of what we do back home in our medical practices is so mechanical, and while the ultimate goal of superior patient care is realized, I wonder if somehow we couldn’t provide just that much more in the way of “care”. Maybe it’s easier for us here in China as we’re not being distracted with the myriad phone calls and mundane activity of calling the pharmacies, insurance companies, etc.