Patients' hospitalization days are shortened, and some nursing needs are shifted from in-hospital to out-of-hospital
Mobile phone reservations and door-to-door nurse visits solve the "difficulty of home care"
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With the obvious trend of aging, the high incidence of chronic diseases, and the increasing demand for postoperative rehabilitation, some hospitals are exploring the idea of delivering nursing services to your doorstep. At the same time, the promotion of "online nurse appointments" still faces some practical difficulties, such as charging standards that have not yet been unified and some nurses are overburdened with work.
Online patient application, specialty background review, platform intelligent dispatch... Recently, the "Internet + Nursing" service of Jilin University First Hospital (hereinafter referred to as Jilin University First Hospital) has been put into trial operation. Sun Jianan, deputy head nurse of the gastric and colorectal surgery nursing platform, became one of the first batch of specialist nurses to provide door-to-door services.
The 73-year-old Aunt Su suffered a knee fracture and had difficulty moving after the operation. She lives on the fourth floor and there is no elevator. Before going to the hospital to change dressings, she needed to be lifted up and down on a stretcher. Sun Jianan and his colleagues understood the wound condition in advance, came to the patient's home at the appointed time, completed specialist assessment and suture removal, and then guided the family members on functional exercises, dietary precautions, etc. The whole process took about 30 minutes.
According to data from the National Health Commission, as of the end of 2025, my country's elderly population aged 60 and above will reach 323 million, of which more than 45 million will be disabled and have dementia. When one person becomes disabled and the whole family becomes unbalanced, it is a problem faced by countless families. At the same time, the incidence of chronic diseases is high and the need for postoperative rehabilitation is growing. Facing reality, some hospitals have begun to explore bringing nursing services to their doorsteps.
Place an order via mobile phone and a certified nurse will come to your door as scheduled
On September 28, when Ms. Wu went to the First Hospital of Jilin University to buy an ostomy bag for her father, she learned that the hospital had an "Internet + Nursing" service project, and she was heartbroken.
Ms. Wu told reporters that her father had an operation two months ago and needed ostomy care three times a week after the operation. Every time she provides care, she has to ask for leave from the company to pick her up and wait in line to accompany her to the clinic. "The old man feels uncomfortable and I am very tired. In the next few months, we use mobile phones to place orders at home, and nurses come to the door with the equipment, which saves a lot of time and energy," said Ms. Wu.
The patient, Mr. Ji, is undergoing chemotherapy due to liver metastasis from rectal cancer. He wears a PICC catheter and needs maintenance once a week. "My legs and feet feel numb after taking the medicine. It takes two hours to go to the hospital, and I have to queue up when I get there." Now he makes an appointment online in advance, and the nurse comes to flush the tubes and change the dressing, and the maintenance can be completed in 20 minutes.
In 2019, the National Health Commission piloted "Internet + Nursing" in 6 provinces and cities including Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai, and expanded it to the entire country in 2021. In recent years, platform exploration in multiple places is forming a scale effect.
Nanning, Guangxi has launched the "Nanning Cloud Hospital" platform. As of October 2025, 82 medical institutions and 6,492 nurses have settled in Nanning. As of December 2025, the platform has provided home care services to more than 20,000 patients. In Henan, since the "Yujian Nursing Home" platform was launched in November 2023, 560 medical institutions across the province have accessed it, and 58,000 registered nurses have provided a total of 125,000 home care services.
Patients feel at ease and nurses have no worries
With “Internet + Nursing” services, patients are most concerned about two things: What can be done? Is it expensive?
It is understood that Jilin University First Hospital has launched the first batch of 27 services, covering four categories: postoperative wound care, pipeline maintenance, maternal and infant care, and chronic disease management, focusing on post-operative recovery people, elderly people with limited mobility, and patients with chronic diseases.
The reporter saw in the hospital's Internet hospital that the prices of each service item are clearly marked: PICC maintenance 400 yuan/time, acute wound/common stoma care 300 yuan/time, newborn care 300 yuan/time, blood sugar monitoring, venous blood collection, drainage care, etc. 150 yuan/time. Door-to-door service fees are charged separately, and operating project fees are the same as those in the hospital.
Visiting the hospital means facing a more complex environment and higher safety requirements than in the hospital. According to reports, the hospital has established 14 management systems, covering key aspects such as nursing quality and safety management, door-to-door nursing service procedures, medical risk prevention, personal privacy protection and information security.
Visiting nurses must hold a valid nurse practitioner certificate, have 5 or more years of clinical nursing experience, and have the title of nurse or above. For specialist services, they must also obtain a provincial or above specialist nurse certificate. All nurses who are employed will be included in the talent pool after passing the training and assessment, and will be subject to dynamic management of "one person, one grade" and will be reviewed once a year.
During the service process, real-name order dispatching, real-time positioning, service track records, emergency contacts, one-click alarm and other measures must be configured in place. The hospital also purchased professional liability insurance and personal accident insurance for nurses. After the service is completed, the nursing records are photographed and uploaded to the platform, and the patients can evaluate them online, leaving traces of the entire process traceable.
In terms of ensuring that nurses are able to go, dare to go, and are willing to go, many hospitals across the country have developed unique experiences based on their own actual conditions. For example, in order to reduce risks from the source, the Aviation General Hospital requires patients to go to the hospital for evaluation when applying for the first time. A senior nurse from the nursing clinic will fully understand the patient's condition and determine whether it is suitable for home outpatient treatment. After passing the evaluation, a certificate will be issued and the voucher will need to be uploaded for subsequent orders.
In order to solve the problem of "who wants to go", Beijing Century Monument Hospital innovatively launched a nursing promotion points system, incorporating door-to-door services into the professional title promotion assessment system, and nurses use their breaks to visit homes, and their income is directly settled into their personal accounts.
There are still problems to be solved in promoting door-to-door services
With the promotion of the concept of rapid recovery and the development of minimally invasive technology, patients' hospitalization days continue to shorten, and a large number of nursing needs are shifted from in-hospital to out-of-hospital. According to statistics, from 2023 to 2025, the number of discharged patients with PICC tubes from the First Hospital of Jilin University increased from 2,811 to 4,077, and the number of discharged patients with stomas increased from 1,861 to 2,043.
"Considering the limited resources and energy of tertiary hospitals, the hospital's idea is to establish standards, train talents, accumulate experience, and then gradually transfer this system downwards through the medical consortium." Lu Guoyue, secretary of the Party Committee of the First Hospital of Jilin University, said that ordinary home care projects are implemented by grassroots medical institutions, and difficult and complex cases are provided by tertiary hospitals through online consultation and remote guidance. Technical support.
On the one hand, more and more hospitals are carrying out "Internet + Nursing"; on the other hand, the promotion of "online nurse appointment" still faces some practical difficulties, such as ununified charging standards, high fees, hidden dangers of medical disputes, and overburdened work of some nurses.
In response to these problems, all parties are exploring ways to solve them. Ningbo Haishu District will launch "Zhuanshu Care" consumer coupons in 2024, which will increase service utilization by 40% through financial subsidies. Hunan Provincial People's Hospital has established a tripartite evaluation system to build a complete quality control closed loop through back-end data tracking, patient satisfaction surveys, and nurse mutual evaluations.
Some insiders suggest that a hierarchical classification model can be implemented, that is, market pricing can be achieved for high-end personalized project needs, such as traditional Chinese medicine health care, maternal and infant projects, etc.; for basic security projects for needy groups such as orphaned elderly people and low-income families, long-term care insurance, financial subsidies, etc. can be implemented to cover the basic security projects.
A relevant person in charge of the hospital expressed the hope that the management department will establish unified standards for the industry, such as charging standards, service catalogs, operating specifications, and how to divide risk responsibilities, so that hospitals can truly and boldly roll out this service.
