JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The Internet hospital is rapidly developing in China as an innovative approach to providing health services. The corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has boosted the process because Internet hospital has the ability to provide widespread accessible outpatient service delivery via Internet technologies for the public during the epidemic. To date, China's Internet hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic have not been systematically investigated.

Objective:

The aim of this study is to understand the characteristics of China's Internet hospitals, and to assess their health service capacity.

Methods:

The data of 711 Internet hospitals were collected via official website, the WeChat platform, smartphone app and the Baidu search engine until July 16, 2020.

Results:

By July 16, 2020, the number of Internet hospitals had expanded to 711 in mainland of China. More than half of Internet hospitals were established during 2019 (28.97%, 206/711) and 2020 (30.24%, 215/711). Especially, Internet hospitals set up in the beginning of 2020, as an emergency response to the COVID-19 epidemic, has a one-third weight. There are three different dominators: government-oriented, hospital-oriented, and enterprise-oriented internet hospitals. In the vast majority of Internet hospitals, traditional hospitals have dominant position (73.98%, 526/711). 46.14% (221/711) of Internet hospitals asked doctors to give health services at a specific Web clinic. Patients accessed outpatient service delivery via WeChat (35.05%, 224/639) most widely. The consulting methods included graphic message (96.84%, 552/570), video (43.51%, 248/570) and telephone (41.75%, 238/570). The median number of doctors online was 43. The median consultation fee of fever clinic and other outpatient clinics per time were separately ¥0 and ¥6. Internet hospitals played various roles during COVID-19, such as medical prescription, drug delivery service and medical insurance.

Conclusions:

Internet hospitals are booming in China. Internet hospital play an important role on preventing and controlling COVID-19, providing different and convenient types of medical services for people seeking medical needs.