Recently, a comprehensive “Level Two” hospital in Gansu Province, Lanzhou Lanshi Hospital, released a “good news” congratulating the hospital for achieving record outpatient numbers in September and October, sparking a heated controversy.
The “good news” revealed that Lanshi Hospital enthusiastically celebrated its latest achievements with 7,577 outpatient visits in September and 426 surgeries both in inpatient and outpatient settings, and 451 outpatient visits and 25 surgeries on the first day of October.
Once this news spread online, public opinion erupted.
Weibo blogger “Cherish the Present” wrote, “May all people in the world be free from illness, preferring the medicine to gather dust on the shelf. This is a line from the poet Yang Shen of the Ming Dynasty, expressing people’s desire for good health without illness. However, hospitals nowadays indeed have various issues, often placing excessive emphasis on economic benefits during medical practices, leading to situations where priorities are misplaced.”
Maternal and child care blogger “Haha and Mama” expressed, “The numbers on the red ‘good news’ should be records of medical services but were packaged as ‘performance medals’. This incident is not only about ‘inappropriate wording’ but a deviation from medical values. When outpatient numbers and surgeries become boasting points, core indicators like recovery rates and patient experiences are neglected. Hospitals should always bear in mind the mission of saving lives and relieving suffering, not ‘drawing in customers’. The pain of patients should never be a cause for celebration. What society expects is not number-based good news but reports of ‘difficult diseases being conquered’.”
Weibo influencer “Dr. Chen from Obstetrics and Gynecology” posted, “Most hospitals now operate on a self-financing basis, and not only that, the higher-ups also allocate various assessment indicators for hospital leaders to fulfill. I can understand the excitement of hospital leaders at the moment. Perhaps what excites them the most is not how much money they’ve earned but the excessive completion of the assessment tasks assigned by their superiors. However, it is unnecessary to forcefully share your joy by making it a ‘good news’. Establishing your achievements on the pain of others is simply not right.”
In response to intense public pressure, on October 16, a staff member of Lanshi Hospital mentioned that the news was shared by new employees who were unaware of the rules, and the hospital is dealing with the situation.
According to the official website of Lanshi Hospital, the hospital was established in 1954, with a capacity of 200 beds, operating as a comprehensive “Level Two” hospital. Information from Tianyancha shows that Lanzhou Lanshi Hospital Co., Ltd. was founded in December 2017, with the legal representative being Li Peiping and a registered capital of 18 million RMB.